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WASHINGTON — Paul Thornton was sitting in the wheelchair section behind Section 114 at Nationals Park on Wednesday when the bullpen door swung open and his son, Zach Thornton, stepped onto the warning track.
“Here he comes!” Paul’s wife, Julie, said. She pulled out her phone and began recording, as Zach paced closer to the visitors’ dugout. “This is the best part of the game right here.”
For any set of parents, a son’s Major League debut is a once-in-a-lifetime event, a point of pride, the culmination of two decades of sacrifice. For Paul Thornton, it was all that and far, far more, in the Mets’ Wednesday night contest against the Nationals.
Seven weeks ago, Paul underwent surgery to remove a tumor from his spine. During the operation, he began to bleed, resulting in temporary lower-body paralysis. Paul has not walked under his own power since. He has spent the past several weeks at a physical therapy facility in Chicago, where he is learning to move his legs again. Though he has never been a social media person, Paul is documenting his progress on Instagram.
It was in the midst of this challenge that Mets pitcher Clay Holmes broke his right fibula, putting the team in need of a starting pitcher. After some deliberation, the Mets tabbed Thornton, their 13th-ranked prospect per MLB Pipeline, known for impeccable control throughout his Minor League career.
Given a day and a half to make his arrangements, Paul Thornton came to the only conclusion possible.
“I wasn’t going to miss this for the world,” he said from his perch in Section 114.
Over the next hour and a half, Paul watched his son navigate his Major League debut with a fair amount of poise, allowing a three-run homer to CJ Abrams in the first inning before settling down to retire nine of the final 10 batters he faced.
All told, Thornton allowed four earned runs over 4 1/3 innings, striking out three in his first appearance in the big leagues.
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