Former St. Albert pitcher Erik Sabrowski made it to the show last night.
Sabrowski, who played four seasons for the St. Albert Cardinals debuted for the Cleveland Guardians at Kaufmann Stadium in Kansas City Sept. 4.
He relieved Pedro Avila for the seventh inning, pitching 1.1 innings. He allowed just one hit against no walks or earned runs and recorded his first two Major League Baseball strikeouts, though his team fell to the Kansas City Royals 4-1.
Congratulations rolled in on social media, including from the Edmonton Riverhawks.
Congrats to Edmonton’s @ErikSabrowski on making his @MLB debut last night 🙌 https://t.co/S00B4v7FSg
— Edmonton Riverhawks (@EdmRiverhawks) September 5, 2024
The 26-year-old lefty spent the 2017-18 season with the Cloud County Community College Thunderbirds in Kansas, set the school’s all-time strikeout record and was named pitcher of the year for that league’s west division.
Later that year, he was drafted 411th overall by the San Diego Padres.
But as any number of almost-was'es could tell you, the road to The Show is a long and winding one.
Sabrowski, who works as a coach for Absolute Human Performance in St. Albert during the off-season, underwent Tommy John surgery to repair a ligament in his elbow shortly after being drafted. The recovery period cost him the 2019 season, the pandemic, 2020. He finally got a taste of pro ball when he hit the field for the Fort Wayne TinCaps of the Padres farm system in 2021. He pitched 30 innings before his elbow gave out again that August, which saw him endure a second Tommy John operation.
The Guardians picked him up in 2021 while he was still recovering. He missed all of the 2022 season and part of 2023 before stepping on the mound for the AA Akron RubberDucks on June 3 of that year.
He started the 2024 season with the AAA Columbus Clippers but was demoted after three rough outings. He was promoted back to the Clippers on May 24 of this year and finally, on Aug. 28, was called back up by the Guardians.
Sabrowski laughed off the fact that his first pitch was wild and made it to the backstop.
“I just had to remind myself that it’s a baseball game,” he said. “The stage is bigger, but I’ve thrown a lot of pitches in my life. That’s a ball I’m going to hold on to for the rest of my life.”
Emotion crept into his voice when he was asked about his roundabout journey to the big leagues.
“There are so many people who are a part of today, I’m just fortunate to have all of them,” he said, mentioning his finance Rene specifically. It’s a really special day. It’s just as much her day as it is mine.”
