Late Wednesday night, Jacob Robson called his parents in Windsor, Ontario, with some huge news.
“He goes, ‘Where’s Dad?’” said his mother, Jill Schroeder, describing the moment. “And I say, ‘He just went to bed.’”
It was around 11:15 p.m. Wednesday night.
“Wake him up,” Robson replied.
“And I was like, ‘Why?’” Schroeder said.
“I need to talk to you guys.”
She woke up her husband.
“We were like, ‘What’s up?’” Schroeder said. “His dad is lying in bed, and I’m holding the phone up. We were like, ‘Is everything okay? Do you need help?’”
“I got the call,” Robson told his parents.
After climbing through the minor leagues for five seasons, Robson, a 26-year-old outfielder from Canada, had been called up by the Detroit Tigers.
As his mother told the story, she broke into tears. She was filled with so much joy and happiness, pride and relief, that she could barely catch her breath.
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“I asked him, ‘How does it feel?’” she said, breaking down, her words catching with emotion. “And he said, ‘Honestly, I have no words. I’m just trying to take it all in.’”
Robson flew to Baltimore early Thursday morning, where he joined the Tigers. Manager AJ Hinch announced that Robson will get his first start Friday night in Comerica Park. (Robson made his debut Thursday afternoon, pinch-hitting in the sixth inning; he grounded out to second base.)
“He was super excited, big smile on his face when he walked in,” Hinch said. “He’s a big leaguer for the first time. He’s going to start the game (Friday) night against the Indians at home. I let him know that so he can let his family know. They are right across the border from Detroit. There should be a flood of people coming to watch.”
Should be.
But there’s a problem.
Robson’s parents are struggling to find a way to cross the US-Canada border because of COVID-19 restrictions.
“The U.S. won’t let us in by car — there’s no land travel,” Schroeder said. “I can come back into my own country but I can’t go across the U.S. border. I live eight minutes from Comerica Park. I live five from the bridge. And I can’t get to my kid, even though I’m double-vaccinated.”
Schroeder went into scramble mode on Thursday. She talked to somebody who travels across the border routinely, but he didn’t think he could get her into Michigan.
She considered going to Toronto to fly to Detroit. “But the testing takes three days, which means I will miss the whole weekend,” she said.
She went to a pharmacy to get a rapid COVID test, just in case she needs it.
And the she went to Plan C.
Or maybe, it was Plan D.
Air travel between Canada and the U.S. is permitted. So she was trying to charter a helicopter to fly from her from Windsor to Detroit, at a cost of $2,200.
“I’m working on it,” she said Thursday afternoon. “I’m literally talking to a helicopter service.”
“No way,” I said.
“Swear,” she said. “But wouldn’t you do it, if it were your kid?”
Heck yeah.
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An old-school approach
Robson is one of my favorite players in the Tigers’ minor league system; I love watching the way he plays. Over the last few years, I have seen him several times. And every time, no matter the level, he has done something to change the game.
He is an old-school player in a new-school, analytics-based game. He plays solid defense. He steals bases. He bunts. He moves runners over. He goes from first to third. And he hits. He always hits. He might not be the fastest outfielder, and he’s certainly not the biggest or the strongest, but he is all energy and effort.
“I’m not the biggest guy on the team,” Robson said. “But the good thing about my game is that I don’t have to get a base hit to really help the team win. There’s other ways for me to help the team win, which makes things a little bit a little bit easier for me.”
Robson;’s story has so many layers.
On one level, it’s a local story, despite the border and COVID restrictions. He grew up cheering for the Tigers and watching Miguel Cabrera, and now they are teammates.
It’s a story of resilience. Robson has watched countless players get promoted — often when he had better stats and production — while he was seemingly stuck in place. So he kept grinding. Kept working. Refusing to give up. Trying to get noticed. Just hoping for that call.
“He’s a gamer,” said Blaise Salter, his former teammate. “He’s a high-energy, high-effort guy. He’s gonna give you good at-bats, play good defense, and he’s just gonna play the game the right way. He’s basically like a brother to me; I just couldn’t be more proud.”
Salter and Robson were minor-league teammates, but Salter has since retired and works as a sports agent.
“We went through the depths of minor league baseball together,” Salter said. “He is someone who has put in so much effort, blood, sweat and tears trying to make the major leagues. I just couldn’t be more excited for him.”
The Tigers drafted Robson out of Mississippi State in the eighth round in 2016. Since then, all he has done is produce at every level in the Tigers system, hitting .293 in 472 games.
Even though he already had two years at Triple-A Toledo, he started this season at Double-A Erie because the Toledo outfield was packed with higher-ranked prospects like Christin Stewart, Derek Hill and Daz Cameron.
“He’s always had to play two times better than everybody else, for whatever reason,” Schroeder said.
Robson has no bitterness.
“However it started, I’m really glad it worked out that way,” Robson said. “Because here we are.”
And he is bursting with confidence.
“I’m here for a reason, and I belong here,” Robson said. “If I don’t go in there, go into the game with that mentality, then I don’t think I’m going to have much success. I deserve to be here.”
He’s not cocky. Just confident because he has produced at every level.
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From a fan to a Tiger
When Robson walked into the Tigers’ clubhouse in Baltimore on Thursday morning, he shook Ramon Santiago’s hand.
Santiago, who played 10 years for the Tigers, is now a coach.
“I was like, man, I used to watch you play for this team,” Robson said. “And so it’s pretty special to be a part of this team at the major-league level.”
Robson grew up going to Tigers games, including Game 2 of the 2006 World Series. And he’d fantasize about playing in Comerica Park.
“I grew up going to those Tiger games, watching all the legends,” he said. “When I got drafted, it was a huge honor. And here we are, what? Five years later. Finally, I’m able to actually play for the major league team. So it’s really exciting. And yeah, I’m looking forward to the future.”
Here’s one thing you might not know about this outfielder: Robson has a high intellect.
In high school, he was in a gifted program and devised an algorithm to help him narrow down what college to attend, weighing the positives and negatives.
“Not many people know that,” his mother said.
She works as a clinical psychologist and has a theory about her son.
“He always shows up on big stages,” Schroeder said.
There is actually a psychological concept behind that. It’s called “social facilitation,” and it’s the tendency for the presence of others to improve a person’s performance.
“The theory of social facilitation is so true,” she said. “It’s when you are good and you are refined in those movements, and when you’re in front of an audience, you get even better.”
Robson has done it his entire life.
“So I’m pretty excited for him,” she said.
Now, here’s hoping his parents can be there to watch it happen, whether it’s by helicopter, or plane or, heck, even hot-air balloon.
Whatever it takes.
Because Robson plays even better when his parents are watching.
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Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @seideljeff. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel/.