Last comparable to Buxton for hype? David McCarty, 1993

This was Saturday morning, a few hours before the Twins announced during a rain delay in Texas that center fielder Byron Buxton was being called up from Class AA Chattanooga and would be available to make his major league debut on Sunday against the Rangers.

This was also before the Twins revealed Aaron Hicks was injured and Torii Hunter would start serving his two-game suspension, leaving the Twins with the minimum of three outfielders – if you had a sense of humor and included Eduardo Escobar – in Saturday's 11-7 loss.

Even before Saturday's outfield attrition, it was clear the Twins were tumbling off the cliff, and needed a boost – and that Buxton was the only minor leaguer on the horizon with a chance to provide it.

Thus, Judd Zulgad and I were talking on our 10 a.m.-noon radio show about Buxton's promotion as if it would soon take place. Judd asked if this would be the Twins' most ballyhooed in-season debut for a prospect since Calvin Griffith ordered No. 1 draft choice Eddie Bane to the Met Stadium mound on July 4, 1973, for his professional debut.

That was a ticket-selling scam by Calvin. It worked – with the combination of Bane and fireworks bringing a regular-record crowd of 45,890 to the Met.

Bane doesn't really count in the Buxton discussion, since his arrival was all marketing (even though we didn't know what the word meant then) and not based on any buildup as he traveled through the minors.

If not Bane, who was the pre-Buxton Buxton for the Twins?

A gentleman who goes by the alias "Doubles'' called the show with the name that had escaped my shriveled mind:

David McCarty.

Yes. That was it. David McCarty, the No. 3 overall pick in the 1991 draft, received his promotion to the big leagues for a May 17, 1993 debut in the Metrodome.

Remember: This was 22 years ago. Hype wasn't the same, with no popularity of the Internet, meaning no social media, no blogosphere, no milb.com to track every at-bat in the minors by a prospect, no easy to obtain video of a minor leaguer hitting a long home run or flying around the bases.

Ticket selling wasn't the same, either … even two seasons after winning a second World Series, I'd guess the Twins were season tickets were at 6- or 7,000.

It was a Monday night in the middle of May and the crowd for McCarty's debut was announced at 18,651. Even for the Yankees, that was probably 3,000 more than the Twins would have drawn to the Dome (on a "school night'') without McCarty's arrival.

There was also a manager, Tom Kelly, telling the media and fans not to get overly excited, that it still was to be determined if the McCarty swing that was tearing up the Pacific Coast League would be functional in the big leagues.

We did not share Kelly's doubts, meaning the media and the fans. We had watched McCarty do extremely well in spring training before being sent to Class AAA, and then we had followed those numbers in Portland:

A .385 batting average with eight home runs and 31 RBI in 40 games at the time of his call-up.

Two weeks earlier, he was 35 for 80 (.438) with five home runs and 20 RBI and I had seen enough. Actually, I hadn't seen it since Florida, but .438, with power, and with the Twins dying in the standings … get him up here.

On May 4, I wrote a column that included this paragraph on McCarty:

"Why hesitate any longer? McCarty is ready to play in the big leagues, ready to give some extra-base sock to a lineup that could use more of it.''

I also talked with Scott Ullger, McCarty's manager at Portland, and he said, "He could go up and contribute right now. There would be some adjustments, once the big-league pitchers started working on him.

"David is confident and he's smart, and he would make adjustments. Already, he's a special player for us. Eventually, he'll be a special player for the Twins.''

Steve Aschburner was assigned to do the "first dayin the big-league life of David McCarty" article for the Star Tribune for the May 18 edition. Wordsmith that he was (and remains for NBA.com), Asch poured it on thusly with his lead:

"The savior flew in from Portland Monday … and actually used an airplane. He parted no seas, healed no afflicted and never even bothered to walk across Lake Calhoun before reporting to the Metrodome.

"Instead, the savior – otherwise known as Twins rookie David McCarty – prepared for his first game in the major leagues as he would for any other game. Any other game, that is, before which five TV crews monitored his every move a full 3 hours before the first pitch, [and] a small army of reporters greeted McCarty when he left the batting cage …''

OK, it didn't work out, and the Twins gave away McCarty for reliever John Courtright on June 8, 1995, but hype for a big-league debut?

Yeah, "Doubles'' called it. The last comparable to Buxton for an in-season major league debut for a Twins' prospect was David McCarty, 6-5 outfielder and first baseman, on May 17, 1993.