When the Dodgers called up utility infielder/outfielder Jamie Romak to the big leagues on May 28, it was a dream come true for the 28-year-old London, Ontario, Canada native. After all, Romak had spent 12 seasons in the minor leagues before finally receiving that call.

Twelve seasons is an eternity in baseball years and even more so when all of them are spent in the minors. There are few guys who have the guts to stick with it that long when there are literally hundreds or even thousands of younger kids who have passed you by. But Jamie Romak did stick with it and his perseverance paid off when he finally made it to The Show.

“It’s everything that you hoped it would be,” said Romak after making his MLB debut. “It was really surreal at first, kind of disbelief… ‘Is this really happening?’ A combination of so many years and sacrifice to see if it actually comes together for you. It’s a wild feeling, the last three days have been amazing.”

In his very first major league at bat, Romak swung at the first pitch he saw and promptly grounded out to Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips.

“He didn’t even give Vin Scully a chance to talk about him,” kidded DodgerTalk Radio co-host Kevin Kennedy after the game.

Romak faired even worse in his next at bat two nights later when he struck out on three pitches against Pirates ace Francisco Liriano, who had limited the Dodgers to only one run and five hits while striking out eight.

Romak has struggled horribly since his May 28 call-up.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Romak finally collected his first major league hit on June 8 against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field – a double to center off of Rockies reliever Matt Belisle that drove in two runs. Romak scored on the very next play when he was driven in by his former Isotopes teammate Miguel Rojas.

Although there is no way he could have known it at the time, that two-run double would be Romak’s only hit thus far in his 18 major league at bats. And although Romak has walked twice, he has also struck out seven times and his .048 batting average has all but sealed his fate with Dodgers with third baseman Juan Uribe expected to be re-activated from the disabled list on Thursday.

Granted, anything can happen in the crazy game of baseball and there is always the possibility that Romak may one day be called back up to the bigs, but even if it never happens, he is immortalized forever on the pages of Baseball-Reference.com and Wikipedia, and he will always have some great stories to tell his kids and grand kids.