"One of the greatest moments I’ve had" - Phillies' Garrett Stubbs shares endearing reaction to facing off brother C.J. for the first time
On Friday, in a spring training game between the Houston Astros and the Philadelphia Phillies at the BayCare Ballpark, the Stubbs brothers got a chance to play baseball together on the same field.
It happened when Garrett Stubbs, batting second for the Phillies, walked to the batting plate and greeted his brother, CJ Stubbs, who entered the game in seventh as the catcher for the Astros.
Saving the memory, Garrett tweeted that it one of the biggest moments on the field.
"One of the greatest moments I’ve ever had on the field. Love you little (bigger) bro @cj_stubbs1," Garrett tweeted.
“I was trying to film it, but my hand was shaking, and I was crying,” their mother, Marti, said.
“And I’m not really that kind of a person. I was just taken back with all the emotion of all the years of all their hard work. It’s literally a dream come true. I can’t describe it.”
In that at-bat, Garrett saw a 1-0 cutter get called strike, to which he said that his brother had a hand in it getting called a strike.
“He stole a strike on me,” Garrett said about C.J.“I was like, ‘Ah, a little down?’ to the umpire. (C.J.) said, ‘No, good hands back here.’ And I said, ‘Just shut up and catch the ball.’”
A few pitches later, Garrett singled to right field, but when CJ came up to bat, he was flung out.
Garrett Stubbs says brothers had fun playing 'wiffle ball'
According to the Stubbs family, the brothers used to play wiffle ball in the front yard of their home.
As the house was atop a hill, they had to chase and retrieve balls that rolled to the bottom all the time. Their parents, T. Pat and Marti, would occasionally replace windows. Garrett's father said that Garrett struck the balls so hard that they left perfect wiffle-sized holes in the glass.
In a post-game interaction, Garrett likened their moment to that of NFL brothers Travis and Jason Kelce and how they get to play against each other on the professional field.
“The Kelce brothers just talked about all the backyard football games that they played,” Garrett said.
“Hearing them saying stuff like that resonates. Because we get to play our sport professionally, and then getting to do it on a bigger stage like this, it’s just so much fun.Garrett’s first birthday party when he could actually stand, he was three,” Marti said. “It was a baseball party. We played Wiffle ball.”