"Welcome To The Team, You're Coming Up To The Big Club."

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"Welcome to the team, you're coming up to the big club."

He'd expected the call one day, but not so soon. It flew in the face of the cost-conscious Cubs, he knew that. Yet he was on the bus, this damn, dirty, stinky bus, listening to Theo Epstein -- YES THAT THEO EPSTEIN -- tell him he'd been called up to the Cubs.

He knew the call would come, but everyone says that. Even the 26-year-old dudes still toiling away in A-Ball, convinced that they're just one adjustment away from a breakthrough.

"Gotta learn to lay off that breaking stuff away," they'd say. "I'm getting close."

They all said that, believing both that learning "to lay off the breaking stuff away" was something possible for them, and that it was the one thing keeping them from Wrigley.

But he was different. He'd known this since he was born. A major league career was his destiny, and, for proof, here was Theo Epstein on the phone, telling him he was getting called up and was meeting the team in Colorado.

He started to look around at the bus, at all of his lessers. He knew it was wrong to think like that, these guys had been his brothers all year. But here was Theo Epstein on the phone, clearly drawing a line between him and the people he'd spent the better part of the year with.

He started to daydream as Theo prattled on about "being a professional" and "handling himself the right way." Big league per diems? Check. Plane rides? Check. Hell, better paychecks. CHA-CHING.

The bus screeched to a halt, and he watched helplessly as his "Lowrider" mag flew to the floor. It used to drive him crazy when the bus driver would do that, but now he only laughed. This was probably his last bus ride, ever. Once he put on that Cubs jersey, he didn't ever intend on taking it off.

Suddenly, he was aware that Theo was still talking to him. Dammit, he thought, how long have I been daydreaming?

"Javy? Javy? Can you hear me? ... Jed, I think we lost connection or something."

"No!" he yelled into the phone. "I'm still here ... but don't you mean Jeffrey?"

"Wha ... no, uhhh," Theo said, followed by a pause. "Uhhh, I think I've got the wrong number. Sorry."