Living the dream.

A few weeks ago, I got a game summary text message from the Giants-Mets game. The Giants won, but it also said, "HR - E. Alfonzo, 1," at the bottom.

I turned to Rhonda and said, "Did the Mets sign Edgardo Alfonzo?"



Nope, Los Gigantes had called up 27-year-old Eliezer Alfonzo, a ten-year minor-league veteran, to fill in for the injured Mike Matheny. With backup Todd Greene still a little punch-drunk from being run over by Milwaukee's Prince Fielder, Alfonzo was here not to ride the pine, but to start at catcher for a major-league club.

He responded with a two-run homer for his first big league hit. Three days later, he caught Jason Schmidt's 16-strikeout game. The next day, he scored the winning run in the ninth inning on a wild pitch. The day after that, his hefty body legged out a triple.

Alfonzo's been in the big leagues less than two weeks. He's played nine games, all starts, and is hitting .290 with 3 home runs.

The thing is, Matheny or Greene will be feeling better soon and Alfonzo will be back on the bus to Fresno. We may never hear from him again. But in the last two weeks, he's lived the dream of thousands, if not millions, of people the world over (myslef included) who have longed to play Major League Baseball. And he didn't do it sitting on the bench; he shared the starting lineup with Bonds, Alou, Schmidt, and Vizquel. After a decade of toiling in the minor leagues and having nothing to show for it, he finally got his opportunity at the big time, and he seized it.

Right now, that makes him my hero.