John Lindsey to Play in Houston? Signs Point to Yes

One of the brightest spots of the season (aside from the announcement of the return of Vin Scully in 2011) is the arrival of career minor leaguer John Lindsey in a Dodgers uniform.

After 16 seasons and 13 different minor league teams, John Lindsey is finally going to get his chance to play.  Yes, the remaining games are practically meaningless for the Dodgers this season, but you can’t deny the “fee good” nature of this story in a year that’s been full of disappointment for Dodger fans, players and management.  This is a “kid” who has worked tirelessly to achieve his goal of playing in the major leagues, and that dream is happening.  And for that reason it seems especially fitting that Lindsey’s first day on a major league roster fell on Labor Day.  But this isn’t a move just for the positive PR: Lindsey is batting .353 with 25 HR and 97 RBI for the Isotopes. 

ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne has been covering a possible Lindsey roster move as of late, and has two great stories on the arrival of the 33 year-old rookie.  Clearly it’s an emotional moment for not only the player, his family, his teammates and the general manager, but also for Tim Wallach, his AA manager, as reported by Shelburne:

“It was,” Wallach said, “as good as it gets.”

And, of course, the Dodgers communications team has been fully prepared to take advantage of the John Lindsey’s arrival, releasing a video on the Dodgers Media Network showing Ned Colletti making the call to Lindsey to share the good news.  Even better, Ned tells Lindsey that he’s flying his parents, wife and kid to Houston to watch the upcoming series against the Astros.  A nice touch.

But something tells me that the best is yet to come in the story of John Lindsey this year.  Only time will tell if this is just the proverbial “cup of coffee,” or maybe the start of something bigger, but as someone who loves the emotional side stories in baseball, I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Photo Credit: Jon SooHoo/Dodgers 2010