Purple Row, our Colorado Rockies blog, has had a running joke about pitcher Alan Johnson ever since a 2009 article by the Denver Post's Woody Paige suggested that Johnson, Brandon Hynick (now in the Chicago White Sox system) and Greg Reynolds (hey, he made two major league starts this season in place of Ubaldo Jimenez!) could all be traded in a package for Roy Halladay, then with the Toronto Blue Jays.
↵That's another of the absurd things Paige has suggested, but it's always good for a laugh. But better yet, look at this sign created for Alan Johnson's first career start on Sunday.
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via @MMuzia
↵But that phone call turned out to be a prank--or actually what should be called reality. Johnson wasn't great, but he wasn't a disaster. He did his job--to be an extra pitcher to keep the rotation in sync. He went four innings and allowed five runs, good enough to get the no-decision (the Rockies scored their fifth run in the bottom of the fourth inning). He did strike out Alfonso Soriano twice, but then many pitchers get Soriano to 'K.'
↵Who knows if Johnson will ever make the majors again, but one day, decades from now, he will be able to tell his grandchildren that he pitched in a major league game. It's a dream so many of us would do most anything to achieve, but never come up with. Hats off to you, Alan Johnson.
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