They didn’t carpool to work, with their varying schedules. Dusty had his pickup truck. Darren had a Toyota Corolla. Most nights, Darren stayed up later than Dusty. Most mornings, he was up earlier, too.
“It was pretty funny with the pipes in the house, every time I turned on the faucet at 6:30 in the morning,’’ Darren said, “he would hear it through the walls and in the room. He knew I got up in time.’’
Family friends would pop into town to visit, too. Longtime family friend David Donati spent nearly a week in Jupiter, sitting back, watching father and son discuss their day over dinner.
“It was just such a beautiful thing to see them together,’’ Donati said, “and how happy it was making Dusty.’’
The highlight of not only the spring, but Dusty’s career, he says, was the afternoon of March 20. The Astros were playing the Nationals for the first time this spring.
Nationals manager Davey Martinez summoned Darren 20 minutes before game-time, and told him he’d be playing. Oh, and one more thing, he also will responsible for taking the lineup card to home plate.
Dusty knew that Martinez promised him during the winter that Darren would get into a major-league game against the Astros, but never imagined it would be so soon.
“It shocked me,’’ Dusty said. “I’m on the bench, and I see someone waving to me from their dugout. I didn’t know who it was. I look, and he’s waving to me to come out. I’m thinking, “Who’s waving to me? I start walking out, and say, ‘That’s my son.’ ’’
