By Brad Hoffman
January 11 2018

It's April 28th and a "no name" pitcher has just pitched in a meaningless spring training game. But to Chris Michalak it's the game of his life. He is trying to accomplish a dream.

[Originally published here on March 29, 2001]

I remember vividly participating in pickup games as a youngster. My friends and I were all Blue Jays fans and we used to stand on the front lawn arguing about which star each of us would be today. 

"I'm going to be George Bell." One of us would say. "You can be Jesse Barfield. And you can be Tony Fernandez." 

It's the dream of any young child playing baseball to one day be a major leaguer like our heroes. When you see a kid repeatedly throwing a tennis ball against a wall or taking swing after swing trying to hit that home run, you know that they are dreaming of one day making it to the major leagues. 

Some people are born with a gift. They are so talented it's as if they were born to be a star. Martina Hingis was born to play tennis, Roberto Alomar was born to play baseball and Wayne Gretzky was born to play hockey. They are the types of athletes that you know will be stars from the moment they started playing. 

It's fun to cheer for players like this and be constantly amazed by their ability, but sometimes it's the so called underdogs who are the most exciting to cheer for.

It seems every year as baseball spring training starts up; there are a plethora of these underdog players in camp. They are the easiest to spot as they are always assigned very high jersey numbers. The old rule is that the higher their number the less chance they have of making the team. Every year though, there seems to be one player who surprises everyone. 

Chris Michalak is one of these players. He is 30 years old and a career minor leaguer. His only major league experience is a very brief stint with the Arizona Diamondbacks. He has been signed and released too many times to remember, yet he still keeps trying to find his way onto a major league roster. 

As Spring training approached it looked like Michalak, pronounced Mah-HALL-ick, may find himself out of a job once again, but then Mark Connor became the Blue Jays pitching coach. Connor had seen Michalak pitch before when he was with Arizona and recommended that the Jays sign him to a minor league contract. Knowing that you can never have too much pitching, the Jays invited him to spring training where he was assigned number 60. It looked like he would once again be one of those players who was destined for the minors, or even worse- no job at all. 

Knowing he had nothing to lose Michalak just went out each time he was called upon and gave his best effort, hoping he could raise some eyebrows. At the same time the Jays discovered their ace Mike Sirotka had major shoulder damage. This would bump everyone up a spot in the starting rotation and would leave the fifth starters spot open. Michalak being left handed had to see this as a great opportunity for him, but even then he was still a long shot. Roy Halladay is very high in the Jays plans and he was favored to win the job. 

As the spring wore on, Halladay continued to struggle tremendously and Michalak kept getting better. It was becoming almost impossible to send him to the minor leagues as he was pitching better than any of the Jays starters. Still he was caught in a numbers game and things were looking grim.

With one start remaining in Spring Training, Michalak knew this was his big chance. He went out against the Pirates and pitched masterfully, meanwhile Roy Halladay pitched in a minor league game and was terrible. 

As Michalak left his start, the small Florida crowd cheered him and reporters surrounded him after the game. He heard the news that Roy Halladay had been sent to the minors. He became emotional as he reflected on his baseball career and his chances of making the team.

"The last seven years have been a grind" he said, while holding back tears. "Then today, walking off, when they started clapping, that was pretty neat. I don't think I can describe it in words. But it makes those seven years worthwhile."

The Jays have one more roster cut to make and it will likely be a relief pitcher, so it looks as if Michalak has made the team. All those years of hard work and rejections and he is about to finally realize his dream of being a major league baseball player.

Who knows how long he'll stay with the Jays. It may be just for a week or two… or maybe he'll continue his spring training dominance and establish himself as a quality major league pitcher. 

No matter what the outcome, it's almost certain that while he's in the major leagues he will be the happiest man on the Blue Jays. After all he wasn't supposed to make it this far, he was the journeyman wearing number sixty.