One taste is hardly enough for catcher

Catcher Josh Donaldson rejoined the RiverCats in May after playing in 10 games with the A's.

The first clue for Josh Donaldson came when the Sacramento RiverCats trainer asked the catcher if he had his passport. Donaldson had no idea why he would need it April 29 for a trip to Fresno.

“I started wondering what was going on,” recalled Donaldson, who joined the RiverCats this season.

Donaldson was relaxing on the bus when manager Tony DeFrancesco summoned him. It was during their conversation that Donaldson figured out why the trainer had asked about his passport.

Donaldson will travel to Allentown, Pa., for the Triple-A All-Star game on Wednesday.

Once the RiverCats reached Fresno, Donaldson went to the airport for a flight to Toronto. The Oakland A’s had placed catcher Kurt Suzuki on the disabled list and needed Donaldson for a few days.

Donaldson’s head was spinning by the time he arrived in Toronto at 7 a.m. April 30. He was too excited to sleep on the plane and could not even manage a nap after checking into his hotel room.

Little did the 24-year-old know at the time that he was hours away from making his major-league debut. The 2007 first-round draft pick was in the show in just his fourth season as a professional.

Donaldson spent spring training with the A’s, who acquired him in 2008 from the Chicago Cubs in the Rich Harden trade. Exhibition action hardly compares with the games that count, however.

“It’s seeing your name on the back of an Oakland A’s jersey,” Donaldson said. “I had that in spring training, but it’s not the same. This is what it’s all about. This is what we’re all playing for. To get a taste of that was awesome.”

His first “taste” was a bit sour, however. Donaldson was overcome with nerves when he stepped to the plate for the first time and struck out in the A’s 10-2 loss to the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.

Josh Donaldson

“I was OK for the first two pitches, but my heart was racing by the third,” said Donaldson, who made his first start as the A’s catcher on May 1 and struck out on three pitches in his first at-bat.

“I didn’t even swing the bat,” he joked.

Donaldson got even with Blue Jays starting pitcher Dana Eveland in the fourth inning by belting his first major-league homer, a two-run shot that gave the A’s a 3-0 lead en route to a 4-3 victory.

The first call he made after the game was to his mother, Lisa Mamuscia, in Alabama. “She was speechless. She couldn’t say a word because she was crying,” Donaldson said. “She cares more (about baseball) than me, and that’s saying a lot.”

His time with the A’s was brief. Donaldson appeared in 10 games before returning to the RiverCats on May 16 when the A’s activated Suzuki.

Donaldson is making the most of his time in Sacramento. He was selected to the Pacific Coast League team for the Triple-A All-Star game July 14 in Allentown, Pa.

His legs could have used the three-day break, but Donaldson will not look a gift horse in the mouth. “It’s an honor to play in the All-Star game,” he said. “We have other guys on the team that should have made it.”

At least Donaldson can now say he has made it to the major leagues. He hopes to stick a bit longer the next time.

“I’ve got to earn it,” he said. “Nothing in my life has ever been given to me.”