SAN DIEGO _ A mother emerged from the tunnel leading out to the field at Petco Park and searched for her boy. At 6-foot-5 and 275 pounds, Franmil Reyes is one of the most imposing figures to ever pull a Padres jersey over his broad shoulders, but his easy smile stretched even further across his bearded face as he spotted his mother.
On a big league field together for the first time, a mother and son embraced for several moments.
They shed tears.
They remembered just how far they'd come together, where they still hope to go.
"For me, that was an absolute joy," Reyes' mother, Dominga Uribe, said through an interpreter after an emotional reunion. "Unfortunately, his dad passed when he was 5. I had to play both mother and father to him and his brother. I always instilled good values in them to make sure they worked hard.
"For him to be here now, it's pretty special."
Reyes' work is hardly finished.
His pro baseball-best 14 homers carried him out of the Pacific Coast League and onto a major-league roster for the first time in his career. With Wil Myers and Hunter Renfroe still making their way back from injuries, the time is ripe for an extended look at a 22-year-old outfielder who led the system in home runs and RBIs last year in Double A and was well on his way to doing so again this year in Triple A after a much-needed pep talk this winter.
He'd broken his hamate bone in the Arizona Fall League. The Padres had left him off the 40-man roster, exposing him to the Rule 5 draft. His hopes had sunk.
So Reyes phoned his mother.
"I told him to maintain his focus and keep working hard," Uribe recalled. "He's a battler. He's a warrior, just like I am."
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