True Stories of the Midwest League

It's in Newsday so it can't be embellished.

In 1977, young outfielders Mickey Hatcher and Ron Roenicke arrived in Clinton, Iowa, home of the Dodgers’ Class A Midwest League affiliate. Their first game turned into a nail-biter, and when a late-inning situation called for a pinch hitter, Hatcher and Roenicke were stunned to see their manager, Dick McLaughlin, call out to a young man in the stands for help.

“I’m looking at Ron, saying, ‘They bring people out of the stands to hit in this league?’ ” Hatcher recalled on Tuesday. “This is unbelievable!”

That pinch hitter, it turned out, was Mike Scioscia. The catcher felt under the weather that day, and McLaughlin, not wanting to get his other players sick, ordered Scioscia out of the dugout -- until he needed him late, at least.

Scioscia and Hatcher proceeded to become roommates and great friends, and both played for the 1988 Dodgers, the last Dodgers team to win the World Series. They have been together for 10 years now with the Angels...

The story doesn't say if Scioscia got a hit in Clinton that night, but it does go on to make a pretty interesting read.