Will Rhymes was having a late dinner in a Toledo restaurant Saturday night with his mother, his girl friend and his twin brother when his cell phone rang. It was Mud Hens' manager Larry Parrish.
    Rhymes stepped outside to take the call. When he returned to the table, he couldn't hide his huge smile.
    After six years in the bushes, he was finally going to the big leagues for the first time. 
    "I was a little shocked," Rhymes admitted Sunday morning. "Everything is going fast right now."
    Shortly after 11 p.m. Saturday, Jeff Larish had just returned to the apartment he shares, ironically, with Rhymes, when he got his call.
    Having been summoned to the big leagues twice before, in 2008 and '09, he knew what to do. Larish rushed back to Fifth Third Field and hurriedly began packing his equipment.
    Then Rhymes walked  through the clubhouse door. "When I saw him, I knew we were both going up," Larish said.
    Neither player slept a great deal Saturday night. First thing Sunday morning, they drove to Detroit together in Larish's car.
    "I talked to him all the way up," said Larish, the seasoned veteran of the two, as he moved into the locker recently vacated by Ramon Santiago while Rhymes sat at a table with Tigers' vice-president and legal counsel John Westhoff, signing his first big league contract.
    "There's a lot of things you have to go through when you first get to the big leagues," Larish said. "But most of them, you have to experience for yourself."
    Larish checked the lineup card posted outside the locker room and saw he was starting in the opening game of Sunday's doubleheader against the Toronto Blue Jays.
    "It's the same game," said the young left-handed slugger who can play first base or third. "I'm just going to try to relax as best I can and be myself."
    Just then, Jim Leyland, still clad in his underwear, marched into the clubhouse to greet his two new players.
    First, he shook hands with Larish. Then he spotted the 5-foot-9, 155-pound Rhymes, who caught Leyland's eye in spring training with his hustle and his hard-nosed approach to the game..
    "Whattaya say, Rhymesy?" the manager exclaimed.
    "You're playing the second game today," Leyland told him after the two embraced.
    "My mother and brother and girl friend are all coming to the game," Rhymes replied proudly.
    "Well, tell them to get here early," Leyland said, "just in case I pinch hit for you in the second inning."
    Then the manager laughed and walked away.
    Welcome to the big leagues, kid.