Hand-Me-Down Mound
Joshua Papelbon gets his day at Fenway, a few years early. How the Spinners and Pawsox Play when the Red Sox are away.

Dan Hickling
MLNSportsZone.com

BOSTON – It is not unusual for a younger brother to receive hand-me-downs. It was probably true in the Papelbon household back in Mississippi, where no doubt, Jonathan's duds would make their way to Joshua, two years younger, and ultimately three inches shorter.

Shirts and shoes are one thing, but a hand-me-down mound? That is something else altogether.

Yet, there Joshua was, toeing the Fenway Park rubber in a ninth inning save situation, with a packed house cheering his every pitch.

It might be Jonathan's mound for the season, but on this day when the Futures at Fenway took over Yawkey Way, it was Joshua's for a very big moment.  

The younger Papelbon occupies the closer’s role for the Lowell Spinners, whose shop is set up 30 miles North and five classes of baseball removed from the Boston Red Sox.  In distant Bean Town, brother Jonathan has become the runaway favorite for American League Rookie of the Year.  

With Boston making one of its West Coast swings, the Fens were taken over by a pair of the Sox' nearby minor league affiliates for a unique double-header, with the New York – Penn League Short Season Class A Spinners facing the Oneonta Tigers in the opener, and the Pawtucket Red Sox "hosting" the Rochester Red Wings in the Triple-A nightcap.

The Spinners took a 3-1 lead into the top of the ninth.  It was time for Joshua, who has developed into one of the top closers in the NYPL, to bask in the "Red and Blue" limelight.

Borrowing big brother's theme music, the ever-popular "Wild Thing", Joshua took the hill and commanded it, and the strike zone, as if it was his own.

For a day, it was.

"The fans were mine for an inning (too)," he said. "It was fun, and I just enjoyed it."

So did the 30,000 plus souls who witnessed Joshua's highly unorthodox, knuckle-dragging underhand delivery, a short of whip-saw action that is much different than his brother's arm motion.

Still, the results have been the same, and were this day against the O-Tigers, when he retired the first two hitters on fly balls, then caught Joseph Tucker chasing a nasty dipper that seemingly came from some other planet.

It certainly was anything but Earthly.

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