The Nicest Story You'll Hear All Year

Unless you are a die hard Los Angeles Dodger fan, you've probably never heard of John Lindsey. And that wouldn't be because you weren't a savvy baseball fan. You've never heard of John Lindsey because he has played in the minor leagues for sixteen seasons. Sixteen. Lindsey is 33 years old and after all those years, all those bus rides, all those small crowds all over the country, John Lindsey got a taste of the major leagues. To see a wonderful story, right click this link and open the video in a new window. And then come back and read the rest of the story.

Ned Colletti just became one of the Fan's favorite people. What a nice gesture, eh? His gesture showed the kind of respect for Lindsey that he deserves. And don't think the players are too cynical not to care either. When and if Lindsey gets his first major league hit, every player in the Dodgers' dugout will be shouting and hollering in happiness. They get where Lindsey has been and what he has endured to finally get called up to the big leagues.

John Lindsey made his minor league debut in 1995. Think about how long ago that was. Bill Clinton was president. Derek Jeter was just getting his feet wet as a Yankee. Indiana Jones' Temple of Doom was the big movie that year. Windows 95 just came out. That, friends, was a long time ago.

Since then, Lindsey has played two seasons of Rookie ball, one season at Single A-, two seasons at Single A, five seasons of Single A+, three seasons of Double A, four seasons of Triple A and throw in two seasons of Independent League ball for good measure. He's been released once and granted his free agency six times. Lindsey has made eight different organization changes, two of them repeats.

It's not like John Lindsey was a top prospect that couldn't make it work. He wasn't even drafted until the 13th round back in 1995. He's just worked and worked and hung in there and plugged away. After his long minor league career, he's got over 1500 professional hits. Lindsey has hit 219 minor league homers. He's driven in over a thousand runs. He has 600 minor league extra base hits. His career slash line in the minors is: .284/.361/.478. Yeah. This is a guy who has paid his dues.

Colletti seems to be in the reclamation business lately. His other feel-good story this year was bringing Jay Gibbons back to the majors after a couple of years away from the big leagues. Gibbons is making the most of his opportunity and is batting .333.

And what of John Lindsey? He got his second plate appearance on Friday night and struck out.

Jay Gibbons??

One of the constants of baseball over the years is that when it comes to crunch time and pennant races, teams take greater comfort in fringe veteran players than young players from their farm systems. That's why contending teams retread players like Garret Anderson, Miguel Cairo, Carlos Delgado and Jim Edmonds. Sometimes they work out, sometimes they don't. In the latest of a long line of retread roster moves, comes word that the Dodgers have mercifully dumped Anderson and called up Jay Gibbons. Jay Gibbons??

Yeah, it is that same one that used to play for the Orioles. Gibbons was a Rule V steal by the Orioles who hit 121 homers for them in parts of seven seasons. But then he got hurt, got suspended and admitted he used PEDs and he has not played MLB since the end of the 2007 season. Allegedly, he wrote to every team asking for a second chance and nobody wanted him. He played independent ball last year. But somehow, he got a shot by the Dodgers who signed him to a minor league deal. He responded to his Triple A assignment by batting for an .879 OPS to go along with a bunch of homers and runs driven in.

Now, in what is probably the most improbable story of the season, Gibbons is back in the majors. Unbelievable. Of course, he got a hit his first time up and drove in a run. So what do fans do when faced with an improbable story like Gibbons? Well, if they are anything like this Fan, you root like heck for them. Heaven knows why, it's just what we do.