Petaluma friends, family of Spencer Torkelson celebrate his Bay Area homecoming

It was around 11:30 a.m. when the Pure Luxury limo bus pulled up at Atwater Tavern. The sounds of construction mixed with pop music from the patio speakers of the bar and a cool breeze swirled as the San Francisco fog kept the sun at bay.

Oracle Park, the home of the San Francisco Giants, was the backdrop and eventual destination for the 40-some people that emerged from the bus, close friends and family of Petaluma’s own Spencer Torkelson, the 2017 Casa Grande grad who’s in the midst of his rookie season with the Detroit Tigers.

Wednesday was the final game of the Tigers’ two-game series against the Giants, which has been a homecoming for the 22-year-old first baseman. This week was the first time that Torkelson played in the Bay Area since becoming a big leaguer at the start of the season.

“Just a really cool experience overall,” he said about the series in the locker room after Wednesday’s game. “Just to see my friends, family in the stands, and for them to see me on the field that I grew up dreaming of playing on. It was all very cool, very surreal and just a really cool experience.”

In the first game of the series,Torkelson estimated around 500 people from Petaluma would be in attendance. The number might not have been as large for Wednesday’s day game, but there were still plenty of Casa Grande, Petaluma Little League and even Petaluma High School hats and T-shirts sprinkled amid the orange and black.

Torkelson’s parents, Rick and Lori, were the first off the bus, both dressed in white Torkelson No. 20 jerseys. While they grew up Giants fans — as did Spencer, his older brother Matthew and most of the rest of their close and extended family — the hometown team has had to take a back seat since Torkelson was taken by Detroit as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 Major League Baseball draft.

“We’re rooting for the Detroit Tigers today,” said Lori, “but the Giants are my second-favorite team.”

The group made its way into the park and down into the lower bowl with a little less than an hour until game time. Pregame batting and fielding work were already done and players were beginning to emerge from the dugouts for their final warmups.

Kids and teens gathered around the Tigers dugout, many equipped with hats, balls and pens, hoping for autographs from the North Bay native. Over the two-game stint, Spencer estimated he gave away north of 100 autographs.

Spenny is extremely congenial,” his dad said. “He can’t say no.”

But that’s all right with Torkelson. It wasn’t that long ago that he was in their shoes.

‘He just had it’

Growing up, Spencer was a diehard Giants fan. His favorite player was Barry Bonds and on his bedroom wall in his Petaluma house was a painting of the Giants ballpark, then called Pacific Bell Park, done by a childhood teacher.

He was back in that bedroom at the start of the week. He spent Sunday night and Monday back home in Petaluma. On Monday, he, Rick and Matthew got hooked up with a round of golf at the exclusive Mayacama Golf Club.

They went to dozens of Giants games growing up. Spencer and Rick were even at Game 7 of the 2012 National League Championship Series against St. Louis, when the Giants routed the Cardinals 9-0 under a torrential rainstorm.

“When I got out on the field yesterday, it was kind of like I had been here before, just because I had dreamt of it, I had visualized it and just kind of manifested it,” Torkelson said.

Torkelson’s lifelong goal was to be a Major League player — “There was no Plan B,” he said — and from an early age it was clear had the potential to do it.

He was a phenom during Little League and high school, as many in attendance Tuesday and Wednesday witnessed firsthand over the years. Mike Enochs, his uncle who coached him in Little League, was there from the get-go.

“I’m very biased, but when he was five years old, I was saying he was going to be in the pros,” said Enochs, watching the game from a suite overlooking home plate with a host of close acquaintances. “He just had it.”

Torkelson was such a feared hitter in Little League that when opposing pitchers got him out, which didn’t happen often, celebrations would break out on the field. Enochs said his nephew batted over .800 in Little League when he was 12.

“I would have him stand in the left side of the batter’s box to have them try to throw a strike to him and they would still intentionally walk him,” Enochs said.

Among those in the suite with Enochs was Paul Maytorena, Torkelson’s coach from Casa Grande. Torkelson was a four-year varsity starter and helped lead the Gauchos to an 82-29 overall record and two North Bay League titles over his prep career. In 110 high school games, he batted .430 with 11 home runs and 99 RBIs.

“It’s been surreal, just all this going on,” Maytorena said. “I’m just so happy for him and proud of him, what he’s accomplished. It’s been him that’s overcome a lot in the sense of it’s so tough to get to this level.”

After Casa Grande, Torkelson went on to have a historic career at Arizona State, where — among numerous accomplishments — he hit 25 home runs his freshman season, shattering Barry Bonds’ previous record of 11. He left Tempe with a .337 batting average, 54 home runs and 130 RBIs in 129 career games.

‘It hits home’

In the days leading up to the San Francisco series, Lori did her best to not get caught up in the emotions of it all. She’s taken this whole season day-by-day, she said, understanding that this is just the beginning of her son’s journey.

But reality hit hard on Tuesday morning, when their family group chat received a video from Spencer on the field at Oracle Park.

“It just hit me that, oh my God, my son is playing first base against the Giants, who we’ve rooted for our whole lives,” Lori said. “I mean, he’s there, he’s in the bigs.”

The family and many others in attendance at the two games had already seen Torkelson play this season — at his MLB debut and over this past weekend in Arizona against the Diamondbacks.

But seeing him play against the Giants? In San Francisco? That was something new.

“You see him standing out there right now at first base, doesn’t seem right,” Rick said. “I can’t explain it. It hits home.”

The Torkelsons said the outpouring of support from the Petaluma community has been immense.

“I quit looking at my phone because I was getting so many texts,” Rick said. “Yeah, it’s been chaos, but a lot of fun.”

Rick, Lori and Matthew, along with Torkelson’s girlfriend, Makenna Mattie, and others, watched him from literal front-row seats on Wednesday. A family friend had secured tickets so close to the field that they could lean over and talk to players in the Tigers’ dugout.

Torkelson went 0 for 3 with a walk on Tuesday night but got a hit in his final at-bat of the series on Wednesday, a 3-2 win for the Tigers. Hitting major league pitching is no easy task, as he’s experienced this year. He left San Francisco with a .192 batting average for the season.

But those close to him aren’t worried. He’s only 67 games into his MLB career. He’s always been a hard worker, a grinder. He’ll figure it out, find a way to make it work. He always has, Lori said.

“I always knew that he was going to get there — somehow, someway, he would be here,” she said. “But it’s tough. It’s glamorous but it’s his job and he devotes a lot of time to it to be the best player he can be.”

You can reach Press Democrat Staff Writer Gus Morris at 707-304-9372 or gus.morris@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @JustGusPD.