A rookie's first taste of the major leagues will often be short.
In baseball parlance, it's known as having a "cup of coffee" in the big leagues.
The Baseball Almanac defines this as "a brief trial in the Major Leagues by a player or a pitcher. A rookie, often called up in September, will get their first taste of the major leagues and it will often be short. Figuratively speaking, it's barely long enough for them to drink a cup of coffee."
To mark the official start of the 2017 baseball season tomorrow, we decided to take a fun look at New Jersey players who managed a few sips of coffee in the "Bigs."
While the almanac lists a total of 965 men nationwide who appeared in one major league baseball game, for the sake of this gallery, we considered players who made up to three official appearances, whether as a pitcher, batter, position player or pinch runner.
By this guideline, there have been 30 men born in New Jersey who had a "cup of coffee" in the major leagues between 1876 and 2011.
Here's some information on these players who, while making only the briefest of appearances in the "Bigs" still managed to achieve what thousands, if not millions, of other young men could only dream.
And about the photo quality ... clearly, some of the graphic depictions of some of the earlier players aren't of the highest quality. It's interesting to note that in the case of numerous old-time ballplayers, including three listed here, no confirmed photo has ever been located of them despite scores of researchers trying to track them down.
Make sure captions are enabled to read about each of these interesting players.
Greg Hatala may be reached at ghatala@starledger.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregHatala. Find Greg Hatala on Facebook.
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