ST. CROIX — When St. Thomas native Alex McFarlane made his debut for the Philadelphia Phillies on July 22, pitching a shutout ninth inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers, his parents were watching from two different places but experienced the same realization: their son had reached the major leagues.
For Alex’s parents, Tami Noel and Roy McFarlane, seeing their son reach the major leagues was the culmination of a baseball journey that began on St. Thomas when Alex was just 3 years old.
Tami had no idea her son would be pitching that week. She recalled getting a call from him on a Sunday night. After he told her he had some news, Tami said she thought he might have been bumped up to the Triple-A level from Double-A. That was not the case, though.
“He goes, ‘I got called up again,’” she said.
Alex was previously called up to the Phillies on April 24 but did not pitch.
The Phillies arranged a ticket for Tami to fly the next day to Philadelphia, where she met up with her son’s girlfriend before the game at Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies were set to face the Dodgers in a three-game series that began Monday, July 20. But Alex did not pitch until the third game on Wednesday, July 22. Tami recalled the excitement over the first two days as she anticipated seeing her son walk onto the field.
“So, then it gets to the third day, it gets to the ninth inning, and we see him up in the bullpen warming up, and we’re like, ‘he’s going to come out, he’s going to come out, he’s going to come out,’” Tami said, noting that she shed tears of joy. “It was amazing, and then he walks out.”
Alex’s father, Roy, watched the game from the Yacht Haven Grande restaurant St. Thomas Social, where he learned his son was entering the game only as it was happening.
“He’s a relief closer, so when they bring him into the game, nobody knows,” Roy said. “He was there in the bullpen. I didn’t know they were going to pull him in. The game was out of hand, so I said, ‘maybe he’ll get a chance to play.’ And next thing you know, I saw him standing up, and bingo, he was in.”
Both parents described a mix of pride and nerves as their son took the mound for the first time as a Major League Baseball player. They both pointed out the first batter Alex had to face was Shohei Ohtani, a Japanese superstar and one of the Dodgers’ most dangerous hitters. Ohtani went out on a deep fly to center field.
“You’re nervous. You’re happy. You’re proud, but the stress is — it’s a lot of stress as a pitcher’s mom,” Tami said.
Roy recalled simply staring at the TV screen in disbelief that his son was pitching in his first major league game.
“I was sitting there emotionally biting my nails, which I don’t have, but I’ll bite my fingers anyway,” he said, recalling how nervous he was to keep his eyes on the TV. “You want to see something good, but you don’t want to see something bad. Then I just said, ‘Roy, stop it, look at it.’ And I just stopped and watched it and enjoyed it.”
Alex ended up throwing seven of his 12 pitches for strikes, pitching a scoreless ninth inning in a game the Phillies ultimately lost 10-7.
When Alex was a boy playing baseball on St. Thomas, neither parent said they expected that he would one day reach the majors. And his path to the mound was not an easy one. He missed the 2024 season after he underwent Tommy John surgery, a procedure that replaces or repairs a damaged ligament in the elbow.
“It’s been a bumpy road,” Tami said. “It’s been a journey but amazing; amazing that he got there. They sent him back down to Triple-A to get more experience, but he’s on the 40-man roster and available to be called up at any time.”
Alex is now with the Phillies’ Triple-A affiliate, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs.
Tami, who put her son into a youth league on St. Thomas at 3 years old, said she gave up much of her personal time over the years to support his passion for baseball.
“I went to all of the games,” she said. “I think I missed maybe a handful through the years.”
Tami said the hardest part was sending her only child away for his senior year of high school so he could pursue better opportunities in Georgia, where he graduated high school before attending the University of Miami. She said she hopes Alex’s journey shows young athletes in the Virgin Islands that reaching the professional level is possible.
“I hope they know that it’s possible,” she said, adding that making it as a professional baseball player takes hard work and dedication.
Tami also had a message for parents.
“The parents need to be involved, and there’s a lot of talented youth on this island, and unfortunately, there’s not a lot of possibility,” she said about St. Thomas. “There’s not as much possibility for them here as I would like to see, and you know, it’s on the parents and the adults to sort of try to create these opportunities for their kids.”
