ARLINGTON, TEXAS — For one of the World Series games at Globe Life Field, the Fairbanks family of Webster Groves had seats out in left-center field, in the overhang above the Tampa Bay bullpen. They couldn’t see the bullpen from their spot but knew somewhere, down there, was their son, Rays reliever Peter Fairbanks, less than 100 feet below them.
It’s as close to him as they’ve been this entire week.
Jane Fairbanks walked back toward their seats for Game 2 when she spied that Peter was warming up, so she waited, stood back from the section to watch from there.
“All by myself,” said explained in a phone interview. “I was thinking the entire time, ‘Oh, my son Peter is pitching in the World Series.’ Who gets to say their son is pitching in the World Series? Not many. It was incredible. My heart was pumping.”
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Jane, her husband, Shane, their daughter Lia, and Peter’s aunt bubbled together for the World Series — and kept their distance from Peter and his family, never closer than sitting above him, only talking to him via FaceTime from the field. That’s how it’s been for many families in baseball’s tiered-level of access to players.
Because of Major League Baseball’s protocols accompanying a postseason in a pandemic, the Dodgers and Rays were in their team bubbles for around 40 days by the time the World Series ended on Tuesday, with the Los Angeles Dodgers winning in six games.
Members of their families present for the series are scattered to various tiers. Some players, such as Peter, had their spouse and children join them in the bubble for the most recent rounds of the playoffs. Other families are snug on the perimeter, housed at a hotel near the ballpark but separate from the team. The Fairbanks are one tier beyond that, on their own, at a hotel several blocks beyond that, walking distance to Globe Life Field.
Rays pitcher Charlie Morton did not have his wife and their four children in the bubble, choosing instead for the two oldest kids to keep with their school. He saw them for the first time after Game 3 in the stands. They held a sign for him.
He waved from the field.
“Just being there for my wife and kids, and just being able to sit down at breakfast or dinner together because that’s everything to me,” Morton said when asked about the first thing he would do outside the bubble. “That’s the most important thing, by far.”
The Fairbanks family has been to Arlington before to see Peter pitch, driving down from the Ƶ area in 2019 to watch the righthander make his major-league debut with the Rangers. That night they saw him soon after the game, right there near the field. He was still in his uniform, and they were able to walk the warning track together.
This month, Shane Fairbanks was quarantined in the tier nearest to the team’s bubble for the division series against the Yankees. Those family members were ushered down into a lower section to see and talk, at a distance, with the players. Shane said Peter emerged, stood about 12 rows away, and they had a quick hello.
“Too fast for a picture,” Shane said.
A ballplayer at Mizzou who played a season in Houston’s organization, Shane returned home to Ƶ between rounds and was unable to rejoin that nearest tier. Jane, a school librarian in Kirkwood, and Shane, who works in insurance, referred to the experience as “incredible,” not as detached as being more than arm’s length from their righthander would suggest. They have a nickname for their hotel, and Jane said she feels like she knows all the Rays even though she’s yet to meet any of Peter’s teammates.
From afar, they’ve seen Peter sizzle a 100-mph fastball and record three saves for the Rays. The former Mizzou pitcher and Webster Groves grad pitched twice in the first five games of the World Series and allowed two runs and struck out two. Then in the finale, he allowed a run and two hits in 1 1/3 innings of work.
His parents both used the word “proud.” After all, no one was closer than them to watch him recover from two Tommy John surgeries and reach the majors.
“Many people say he’s tall — Peter’s 6-foot-6 — so of course he throws hard,” Shane said. “A lot of people don’t know he was up at 5:30 a.m. working out. The amount of dedication and perseverance to do what he’s done, it’s a lot. He’s a great athlete, and he has his size, but to be out there like he is — that’s where a lot of work got him. It was not easy.”
His parents have not seen Peter and his family up close since they left Ƶ several weeks before the restart of preseason training. When next they do, Jane said she won’t linger back like she did to watch his debut.
“I’ve thought about that,” Jane said. “I’ll get him for a hug in Ƶ.”