John Lindsey continues to get a lot of attention for a guy with all of one official major league at-bat. It is understandable, of course, in that the 33-year-old with 16 minor league seasons is said to be the "oldest non-Asian" (USA Today) to debut since 2002.
Chris Coste, the five-year Independent vet, was 33 when he broke in with Philadelphia in 2006, but he was "only" 111 days past his birthday compared to Lindsey's 222 days since his January 30 birthday until he was announced as a pinch hitter Wednesday.
Lindsey finally got to the plate to pinch hit for Ted Lilly in the seventh inning of Thursday's Los Angeles Dodgers 3-2 loss at Houston, and with 13 family members, including three-year-old son John, Jr. on hand, the big right-handed hitter flied out to center field.
"It's an awesome feeling," the former New Jersey Jackals star told CBSSports.com of having his family travel from Mississippi to be at the game. "My little boy to see his dad up there. For all I know, he was playing around up there (during the at-bat). It was truly a good feeling to know that they were there to support me."
Lindsey and his family will get an even better feeling on Saturday because Dodgers Manager Joe Torre says he plans to start Lindsey.
Jackals Manager Joe Calfapietra, whose team was dropping its first Can-Am League playoff game in Quebec, 7-4, about the time Lindsey got his first at-bat, has tentative plans to visit Dodger Stadium for the season-ending series against Arizona October 1-3.
"John worked at all aspects of the game" during his two seasons in New Jersey (2005-06), praised Calfapietra.
We went into depth on the continuing friendship between Lindsey and Calfapietra in Thursday's subsriber-driven Independent Baseball Insider column.
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