Inside the Phillies: Jonathan Pettibone succeeds in debut, just like his father did

Nearly 30 years ago, a 6-foot-4 righthanded pitcher got a call to the big leagues from the Minnesota Twins.

Johnny Podres, the Twins' pitching coach, offered some simple advice.

"I thought he might pull me aside and tell me how to work a certain hitter," Jay Pettibone said as he recalled the details of his big-league debut. "But, no, he just encouraged me to have a good time and enjoy the moment. He said, 'You worked hard to get here, so go out and have fun.' "

It turned out to be great advice.

"I took it," Jay Pettibone said just a few moments before he watched his son Jonathan make his major-league debut Monday night against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Citizens Bank Park.

"I ended up pitching a complete game."

Jonathan Pettibone did not finish what he started in his debut, but he pitched well enough to earn the praise of manager Charlie Manuel, his Phillies teammates and his father. The 22-year-old Pettibone covered 5 1/3 innings and allowed two runs on six hits without a walk before turning the game over to a quartet of relievers.

"He went CG [complete game], so I'm sure he'll remind me of that from time to time," Jonathan said.

The son was perfectly happy with the no decision in the Phillies' 3-2 win and his father was thrilled with the performance, too.

"I was excited for him," said Jay Pettibone, who arrived in Philadelphia at 6 a.m. Monday after catching a red-eye flight from Southern California with his wife Linda and younger children, Ashley and Austin. "Once some of the jitters got out of the way, he settled into his game a little bit. He made a couple of mistakes."

Thanks to a great first-inning catch by John Mayberry Jr. in right field, Pettibone's only costly mistakes were a 1-0 change-up to Pedro Alvarez in the second inning and a 3-2 fastball to Russell Martin. Each of those pitches resulted in solo home runs for the Pirates.

"Other than that, I thought he did his job and went after them like he usually does," Jay Pettibone said. "There wasn't a lot of emotion. He stayed pretty controlled. I'll tell him he did a good job."

The father admitted before his son's debut that it reminded him of his own.

"I have a lot of the same feelings now that I did then," he said. "A lot of nervousness. I think I told Jonathan that a lot of the excitement with the crowd and the big ballpark is gone after that first pitch. It narrows down. You're focused on that one thing - working with the catcher and trying to get that hitter out. At first, it's really intimidating, but then you get really focused and do what you have to do."

The younger Pettibone got to do something his father never did. He batted and scored the Phillies' first run of the night after drawing a leadoff walk in the bottom of the third inning.

Jay Pettibone's debut did not end in a victory - he surrendered a ninth-inning home run to Kansas City's Willie Mays Aiken - but in hindsight it had a ton of eerie aspects.

Podres, the man who gave him that simple but sage advice three decades ago, ended up being the pitching coach for the 1993 Phillies. Another member of that '93 Phillies team - pitcher Danny Jackson - also made his major-league debut in the game and ended up with his first big-league victory after pitching one inning of relief.

The game was played on Sept. 11, 1983, and the Phillies beat the Pirates that day, the same team Jonathan faced in his big-league debut.

A year after his debut, Jay Pettibone was back in the minor leagues pitching for double-A Orlando and his manager was none other than Manuel.

"He pitched for me at a time when we only carried eight or nine pitchers," Manuel said. "I had a four-man rotation and he was one of my starters. He had a college education and he was smart. He retired from the game and had a nice career."

Shortly after retiring from baseball in 1984, Jay Pettibone became a police officer in California. He later worked for U.S. Customs and is a little more than a year from retiring from his job with the Homeland Security Department.

Jay Pettibone's big-league career lasted only four games. If his son continues to pitch the way he did in his debut, it should last quite a bit longer than that.