Like most mornings, Blaine McIntosh's phone rang.
Like most mornings, his mother, Amy McIntosh, was calling to check in on her only son.
But the morning of Dec. 6, 2022, was nothing like most mornings.
Blaine said his mom sounded "distraught."
"I wasn't expecting to hear the news I heard," he said.
Blaine McIntosh's best friend, the friend who'd practically lived with the McIntoshes while both attended Sycamore High School, the friend who was there to do TikToks or play catch, the "ride or die" guy who was always there for a laugh or a cry, was gone.
Twenty-one days before his 21st birthday, Ethan "E" Biggs, Blaine learned from his mother that morning, had died of a drug overdose.
Seeing the lights one last time
Blaine and Ethan had seen the Christmas lights together at Opryland the day before, a rare chance for the two to hang out, just like old times. For most of the previous two-plus years, since he graduated high school in 2019 and was selected in the 13th round of the MLB Draft by the New York Mets that summer, Blaine's professional baseball career had kept them mostly apart.
"She didn't want to break the news to me," Blaine said. "She knew how much I cared for 'E' and wanted for him to get well.
"It was like being stuck in a corner. You have a million things running through your mind, like 'How could I have helped? How could I have done this and that?' "
Eighteen months later, Blaine McIntosh is on another baseball adventure. The former Vanderbilt baseball recruit is a member of the Firefighters, a new team under the Savannah Bananas umbrella that will begin play this season.
This time, "E" is with him.
Another frantic phone call
Not long after Biggs died, Amy McIntosh made another distraught phone call. This time to her daughter, Tristan McIntosh, an American Idol finalist in 2016 and one of her brother's closest confidants.
She was looking for Blaine.
"I said, 'Where's your brother?' " Amy recalled.
Blaine had gone to a nearby park.
"He just sat there, praying and crying," Amy continued. "He didn't want anyone to see him in a weak moment."
A little more than six months later, after McIntosh had spent parts of four seasons in the Mets' minor-league system, another one of those important phone calls occurred.
Only this time, Blaine was the one making it.
From New York Mets to a Firefighter
McIntosh was headed home from Port St. Lucie, Florida, in late June last year when he called his mother.
The Mets had released him.
Amy, a retired Army major who had negotiated into Blaine's first pro contract that Tristan sing the national anthem before a Mets game at Citi Field, wasn't prepared for how prepared her outfielder son was for the moment.
"I'm kind of his hype man," Amy said. "He said, very matter-of-factly, 'Mom, I'm driving home right now. Let's go over our top five choices of what's next.' "
Plans B, C, D, E and F included trying to find another team, playing independent ball and playing Banana ball.
McIntosh also had the $400,000 the Mets set aside for him for college, some of which he has used to go to Austin Peay. He is on track to graduate with a degree in sports media and communications in December.
The last option was for Blaine to join the military like his mother, a retired U.S. Army major.
But a call from the Firefighters came along, Blaine tried out in Daytona Beach, Florida, and Banana ball it was.
The Firefighters will face the Bananas in Nashville on June 13-15 at First Horizon Park.
TikTok, he don't stop
McIntosh's fit with the Firefighters stretches well beyond any baseball field and well into the social media field.
McIntosh, who has more than 364,000 followers on TikTok and 23,000 more on Instagram, is considered a social media "influencer," which fits the M.O. of the Savannah Bananas brand. Players routinely rehearse and record TikToks on game days, in addition to playing a Harlem Globetrotters' style of baseball.
"I want to go through the season and see where it takes me," Blaine said. "See how they interact with fans, the communities they play in."
McIntosh first took interest in social media during the COVID pandemic. It was an "escape from reality" for him.
Of course Blaine would like another shot at professional baseball. But for the time being, he's a Firefighter.
Like father, like son
Blaine's father, Freddy, fittingly has been along for his son's latest baseball ride.
Literally.
Freddy drove to Savannah, Georgia, the family's 35-foot Jayco RV, the same one the McIntoshes had taken to so many of Tristan's singing events and so many of Blaine's baseball events. He wanted Blaine to have a familiar face around and a place to sleep during training camp.
Just like all those years Freddy drove a school bus so he could spend just a bit more time with his children.
"Those bus rides are engraved into my mind," Blaine said. "Just the nostalgia of him being there every day."
Blaine proudly wears some of his father's genes.
Freddy was a three-sport athlete in high school and played basketball collegiately at Alabama Christian College. His mother, Betty, was an accomplished gospel singer.
It's no coincidence that Tristan still sings. She plans to release her latest single, "Champagne Rampage" this summer and regularly plays music on Broadway.
COMING SOON: The Savannah Bananas are coming back to Nashville in 2024. How to score tickets.
Who is Houstest Jay Magnothius?
Being Houstest Jay Magnothius was an easy call for Blaine McIntosh.
Wait, Houstest Jay Magnothius?
Magnothius is an assassin who killed a baseball player named Jackson Luthe in a family movie the McIntoshes made many moons ago. That character returned last Christmas, in "Houstest Strikes Back 3," a sequel Blaine and Tristan made as a gift for their parents.
The 12-minute video was shot in one day at Centennial Park and Tristan's apartment in Nashville. In addition to playing the role of Magnothius, Blaine edited the production.
"It's almost impressively good," Tristan said. "And it was really funny."
Paul Skrbina is a sports enterprise reporter covering the Predators, Titans, Nashville SC, local colleges and local sports for The Tennessean. Reach him at pskrbina@tennessean.com and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter)@paulskrbina. Follow his workhere.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Blaine McIntosh's journey from NY Mets to Bananas' new baseball team
