CHAMPAIGN — Two words from John Staab on Sunday morning summed up how those close to Tanner Gordon probably felt.
“Can’t wait,” said Staab, the veteran Champaign Central baseball coach who used to watch Gordon excel on the mound for the Maroons in the mid-2010s.
On Sunday afternoon, in front of 32,180 fans at Coors Field in downtown Denver, Gordon once again stepped onto a mound.
To make his Major League Baseball debut with the Colorado Rockies.
The 26-year-old has come a long way from his days of shutting down Big 12 Conference foes wearing the maroon and white of Central. A long way from his days in junior college baseball at John A. Logan, a perennial powerhouse in southern Illinois, but several rungs removed from the MLB ladder.
Even from his days in the Big Ten pitching one season at Indiana. A path that led him to becoming a sixth-round draft pick of the Atlanta Braves in 2019 and toil in the Braves’ minor-league system until a trade to the Rockies last July.
A little more than a year after his move from the Braves to the Rockies, the 6-foot-5, 216-pound right-hander was exactly where he wanted to be on Sunday afternoon. From the moment his first pitch left his hand — a 92-mph four-seam fastball — until he exited in the top of the seventh inning of an eventual 10-1 loss by the Rockies against the Kansas City Royals, Gordon lived out a life-long dream.
With ample support from Champaign while he went 6 1/3 innings and struck out four. He gave up five runs on eight hits, but outside of a rough second inning, kept the Royals at bay.
He was efficient, too, with 62 of his 78 pitches called for strikes, and appears poised to make another start as the Rockies begin a road trip this week to play the Reds in Cincinnati and Mets in New York before the All-Star break.
“I’m so proud of Tanner,” said LeConte Nix, a proud Champaign Central graduate himself and former Central baseball assistant coach during Gordon’s career who also coached the Maroons’ boys’ basketball team and was an assistant football coach, too. “He’s one of the hardest workers you’ll ever meet, so I’m not surprised. I’m just so happy for him and his family.”
Seeing success at Central
The 2016 Central graduate shined in his final season with the Maroons eight springs ago by winning nine games, posting a 0.73 earned run average and helping Central win a Class 3A regional title en route to 28 victories.
He was also a key component as a junior in the 2015 season for Central that saw the Maroons win 32 games and in 2014 as a sophom*ore when Central won its first regional championship in 21 years along with a single-season school record 35 victories.
Aside from all the success he helped Central baseball achieve, one aspect stands out to Staab about Gordon all these years later. His stoic, no-nonsense demeanor.
“He was a flatliner,” Staab said. “In other words, you never knew what the score was when he was on the mound. He had the perfect temperament. He didn’t get too high or too low and trusted his coaches’ pitch calls and his defense.”
Former Central catcher Luke Beesley is a year older than Gordon, having graduated from Central in 2015. But he could see the potential Gordon displayed when he was just a teenager.
“I remember him having a great fastball and a curveball that was tough to hit,” Beesley said. “Tanner is a big dude, and those long arms make him an intimidating figure. But his work ethic and mindset was a big factor of making it to the Show. That journey is a real grind, and you have to have a true love for the game. I know all his Central teammates are excited for him.”
Leaving his mark
Dom Erlinger was a junior and pitched with Gordon during Gordon’s senior season with the Maroons. Foreshadowing what was a memorable 2017 season with the Maroons placing fourth at the Class 3A state tournament as Erlinger played a big part in that state tournament run.
Erlinger credits the example Gordon set, along with Phil Swartz and Alec Barger, in his own development as a pitcher.
“Getting to pitch with those guys was incredible for my development,” Erlinger said. “I essentially got to be in a staff with three aces my junior year. They set the standard of what a Champaign Central varsity pitcher was, and I had to raise my game every time I stepped on the mound to try and meet that standard.”
A standard Erlinger now carries to the current Maroons with his role as Central’s pitching coach. Seeing a player like Gordon go from Central to college to the Rockies is proof a MLB pitcher can call Champaign home.
“It’s huge in terms of motivation for our guys,” Erlinger said. “We have his name up in the dugout for All-State honors, and he’s on championship banners in our clubhouse. The boys know who he is and the path he took. Knowing that Tanner wore the same jersey these kids are wearing now makes that dream of theirs seem a little more possible.”
Cam Robinson graduated from Central in 2018, two years after Gordon walked across the stage at the Krannert Center on the University of Illinois campus during Central’s graduation ceremony. But Robinson was aware of the success Gordon and his teammates had with Central baseball, a mantle Robinson and his classmates kept going after Gordon moved on from Central.
“He was a competitor with everything he did,” said Robinson, who went on to pitch at John A. Logan like Gordon and then also at Louisville and is currently a graduate assistant coach at Louisville. “He always took pride in doing the little things right and making sure he had mastered something before moving on to the next. He was soft-spoken, but his actions and play always spoke for themselves. It’s no surprise seeing the success he’s had and will continue to have for the rest of his career.”
Welcome to the Show
Once Gordon left Champaign, however, his baseball journey took a varied path that led him to his historic debut on Sunday by becoming the first Central graduate this century to play in the majors. And the first to make his MLB debut since Dick Hyde did so with the Washington Senators in 1955.
“I wish I could go through it again,” Gordon told reporters on Saturday about his reaction on learning he’d make his MLB debut on Sunday. “Not that I didn’t soak it up, but it was really cool to see all your guys get up and cheer for you and be happy for you all in one moment. It was awesome. It’s kind of indescribable.”
Gordon has thrown a lot of pitches since he last suited up for Central on June 2, 2016, a 4-3 loss to Springfield in a 3A sectional semifinal game.
Sunday’s start with the Rockies marked his 139th appearance in the past eight seasons, and he had thrown 640 2/3 innings in either a college or professional game until his MLB debut. He played for nine teams — the John A. Logan Volunteers, the Indiana Hoosiers, the Danville (Va.) Braves, the Augusta (Ga.) GreenJackets, the Rome (Ga.) Braves, the Mississippi Braves, the Gwinnett (Ga.) Stripers, the Hartford (Conn.) Yard Goats and the Albuquerque (N.M.) Isotopes — before he got the call Saturday to become the latest member of the Colorado Rockies.
So Sunday’s moment was literally years in the making.
Earning respect from rivals
One that former Centennial baseball coach Ryan Remole got an early glimpse of when he coached Gordon at Franklin Middle School in Champaign.
“Even at age 11, you could see that he was going to be something special,” Remole said. “I remember talking to his father when I discovered he’d be attending Central rather than Centennial, and of all of the highly-skilled players that were headed across town, Tanner was the one that worried me the most because at the time, he didn’t seem to have a clue that he could be really, really good.”
Luke Smith echoes those sentiments of his former high school coach. Even if he didn’t necessarily want Gordon to have success against him in high school since Smith was an ace at Centennial who went on to pitch at Parkland and Louisville. He would make sure Gordon knew about it in their workouts with area trainer Joe Yager when both were thriving on their respective high school baseball teams in Champaign.
“Tanner and I had a unique way of looking at those workouts,” Smith said. “As two guys who wanted to be the No. 1 pitchers on their respective teams, we went head to head in the weight room every night. Tanner is the ultimate competitor. He continues to work tirelessly to perfect his craft.”
Future appears brightSmith anticipates Sunday’s debut with the Rockies is the first of more to come for Gordon. Even with hitter-friendly Coors Field his new home ballpark.
“He’s a terrifying figure on the mound,” Smith said. “He’s big, tall and strong and is coming right at you with everything he has. I couldn’t think of an opportunity like this happening to a more deserving person. I always looked forward to pitching against Tanner. Not because it was easy, but because I knew I had to be on my best to beat him. I’m confident Tanner is going to have a long, successful career in the big leagues, and I can’t wait to watch the whole thing.”
The rest of Champaign feels the same way.
Matt Daniels is the sports editor at The News-Gazette. His email is mdaniels@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on X (@mdaniels_NG).
