Before getting released by the Miami Marlins at the end of spring training, Dylan Lee was living in a camper that he hauled behind his truck to save money. Now, he’s a World Series champion, newly married and about to move into a Tennessee home that has a creek where he can work on his fly-fishing.
These truly are exceptional times for the Lees of Dinuba, Calif., a town of 24,000 in the northwest corner of Tulare County, which usually tops agricultural revenue rankings among United States counties and annually hosts the World Ag Expo.
To say that Lee, 27, paid his dues to get to the major leagues would be akin to saying farming is big in Tulare County. It took Lee so long to get to the big leagues that plenty of people in his hometown were wondering if it would ever happen.
“Here back in Dinuba we’ve been huge fans of his journey,” said Dinuba High baseball coach Brent Morrelli, listed as “Coach Mo” in Lee’s iPhone. “And we’re like, ‘Man, come on, he’s got to get a shot.’ He’s had some really good years in Triple A and Double A.”
Consider the current year Lee has had: he was released by the Marlins on March 29, signed with the Braves as a free agent April 15, spent the season in Triple A before making his major league debut Oct. 1, pitched in the NLCS at Dodger Stadium three weeks later, started Game 4 of the World Series, closed on a house near Chattanooga on Nov. 9, and got married Nov. 20 in a barn in California’s San Joaquin Valley.
Oh, and he rode on a float in the Dinuba Christmas parade Dec.
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