Del Rio native and Houston Astros minor league standout Jack Mayfield knew rosters were being submitted to the major league office at 11 a.m. Thursday 
morning.
At 11:05 a.m., the phone hadn’t rang telling him he hadn’t been added to the 30-person major league roster. At 11:10, the same. By 11:25 a.m., he just wasn’t sure if he’d be putting on a major league uniform in the coming weeks.
At 11:30 a.m., his phone rang. Future Hall of Fame manager Dusty Baker was on the line letting Mayfield know that he finally had a locker at Houston’s Minute Maid Park. He would be on the Astros opening day roster.
“It was pretty exciting,” Mayfield said.
After being signed by the Astros as an undrafted free agent in 2013, the team promoted him to the major leagues on May 27, 2019, and he made his major league debut that day. He went between Round Rock where the AAA team is and Houston a couple of times. He hit .156 with 2 home runs and 5 RBI for the Astros in 2019.
This Spring, as Covid19 shut down America, Mayfield had to wait for his chance to prove he belonged in the majors on opening day. Because of the Covid Pandemic, major league baseball will have an abbreviated 60 game schedule versus 162.
In June, when the Astros announced who would be at their major league site, and who would be at the University of Houston alternate site for spring training, Mayfield didn’t get the news he’d dreamed of. His locker wasn’t at Minute Maid Park where the major leaguers were located but three miles away at the University of Houston complex.
“I was really frustrated,” he said.
However, he used that frustration to energize him. “I really focused and it drove me,” he said.
Summer camp was a fresh start and Mayfield took advantage with 6 hits through COVID camp 2 being doubles and also 2 home runs. He also proved his worth by playing half of the infield positions. It was hard work during the break that got him there. From working out in his garage five to six times a week to hitting every other day with his brother in law Luis Flores, also a former professional baseball player and now a Del Rio Ram baseball coach, as his batting practice pitcher, he felt ready to get back to the Astros and it paid off.
He also said not making it to Minute Maid initially may have been for the best. “I got a lot more reps than I would have gotten at Minute Maid.” The Astros also added him to the roster for a number of games at the big league park.
Del Rio cheered Mayfield on Thursday afternoon via Facebook with 81 comments, 14 shares and nearly 600 reactions on his Facebook post announcing the news.
It’s a town that’s watched him go from playing Little League, to the Del Rio Rams, to the University of Oklahoma Sooners and then navigate his way through the minor leagues. Now, he’s where they knew he’d end up, on a major league baseball team’s opening day roster.
