Mary Minor's phone rang at almost 1 o'clock Thursday morning. But it wasn't the early-morning phone call every mother dreads.
Her son, Zack Cozart, was sharing the news that he had learned just moments before: He was heading to the big leagues -- as in the Cincinnati Reds, where he would start at shortstop later that night in Milwaukee.
For the past year and a half, the Collierville High and Ole Miss alum had been playing for the Louisville Bats, the Reds' Class AAA affiliate. But that all changed with the phone call that led to the phone call that led to Minor not getting a second of sleep the rest of the night.
"The adrenaline, the excitement, being proud for him," she said, explaining the insomnia.
In Milwaukee, she saw a fairly successful Major League debut for her 25-year-old son: Batting seventh in the order, Cozart went 1-for-3 with a run in a 5-4 Reds loss to the Brewers.
Cozart wasn't terribly surprised. He was having a statistically solid year in Louisville while both of the Reds' regular shortstops, Paul Janish and veteran Edgar Renteria, had hit a combined .227 through Wednesday's games.
"I knew what was going on and I was having a pretty good season, so I knew it could've come at any time," he said, according to Reds.com.
So Cozart packed up in Louisville and joined his new teammates later in the day.
Minor and David Cozart, Zack's father, scrambled to find a flight to Milwaukee to see their son. They found a direct Delta trip from Memphis International Airport, that left at 2 p.m.
That meant a 4 o'clock arrival at Milwaukee's General Mitchell International Airport. By 6 p.m., though, they had found Miller Park. So had Zack's wife, Chelsea, and a friend of his from Ole Miss, fellow former baseball player JoJo Tann.
Cozart popped out in his first at bat. But given a 2-0 pitch in his second at bat, Cozart laced a line drive over Milwaukee shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt for a base hit. In the stands, David Cozart sat stone-faced. Minor pumped both of her fists and yelled "Yes!"
The next Reds batter, Ramon Hernandez, laced a line drive into the right-center gap. Cozart got the green light to score from the third base coach and slid into home to give the Reds a 2-1 lead.
In 77 games this year in Louisville, Cozart was hitting .310 with seven home runs and 32 runs batted in. His average increased sharply from 2010, when he hit just .255, but had 17 home runs and had 67 RBI and was named the team's most valuable player.
Back in Collierville, Cozart's promotion started a buzz. Jeff Hopkins, his high school coach, was busy sending and receiving text messages while watching his former player's debut on television Thursday night.
"Everybody in Collierville is abuzz about Zack Cozart right now," Hopkins said.
Tim Dulin, who helped coach Cozart, said he wasn't surprised he ascended to the big leagues.
"Even at 12, he kind of had a quiet sense of confidence about him," Dulin said, "and had a feel, not just for hitting, but defensively."
The second-round pick of the Reds in 2007 after a three-year Ole Miss career, Cozart methodically plowed through the minor league system. He spent 2007 and 2008 with the Class A Dayton Dragons, 2009 with the Class AA Carolina Mudcats and arrived on the Bats' roster at the start of 2010.
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