Minor League veteran gets call after winning PCL batting title
John Lindsey has spent 16 seasons in the minor leagues, amassing a .311 batting average at the Triple-A level
SAN DIEGO — There hasn’t been much feel-good to the Dodgers’ story lately, which probably explains the interest in the promotion of 33-year-old John Lindsey, who spent his first day as a Major Leaguer on Monday after 15 years in the Minors.
“This is a great moment for me and it hasn’t sunk in,” said Lindsey. “I’m here, but my brain hasn’t caught up yet.”
Lindsey’s circuitous route to the Major Leagues includes stops with three other organizations (Colorado, Seattle and Florida), a couple years in independent ball and a near retirement.
He finally got the call after winning the Pacific Coast League batting title with a .353 average for Triple-A Albuquerque, slugging 25 homers with 97 RBIs in 107 games. He was called into manager Tim Wallach’s office for a conference call with Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti for the good news.
“My knees kind of buckled,” Lindsey said. “I couldn’t believe it.”
Lindsey did a SportsCenter interview Monday after receiving “a million texts” Sunday.
“My wife put it on Facebook and a lot of people are rooting for me,” he said.
Lindsey said every time he didn’t get called up, “It was like they were telling me I couldn’t do it, but I’m hard-headed,” he said. “I was stubborn and kept going.”
Manager Joe Torre said he will use Lindsey mostly as a pinch-hitter, because his defense at first base is limited.
“The lesson is, never give up,” Torre said. “It’s a great story. We’ve been around a lot of players that things come easy to and don’t really understand the other side of it.”