Paramedic Gets Call from Ambulance to Marlins Bullpen

This is the kind of human interest story that I love. Found it in the Palm Beach Post.

Imagine the buddy you work with every day, sitting in your office and tell you that he's quitting, in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Depression, because he just got a new job - as a catcher for the Florida Marlins.

That's just about what happened at Miami-Dade Ambulance last weekend when Jeffrey Urgelles told his fellow firefighter-paramedics that he was trading his medical uniform for a Marlins uniform.

"It definitely came out of the blue," said Urgelles, 26, a former minor-league catcher with the Toronto Blue Jays and Cincinnati Reds.

At first, his co-workers thought he was trying to pull a fast one. Sure, they recalled him talking about his days in Class A and Class AA, including playing in the Florida State League against a rising prospect named Hanley Ramirez.

But now, more than two and a half years after quitting baseball, he finally was getting called up by the Marlins?

"He told me, 'Hey, I know you're not going to believe this, but I got picked up by the Marlins,' " recalled Lazaro Fuentes, who has partnered in an ambulance with Urgelles for the past year. "I said, 'Nah, you're kidding me.' When I finally realized it was true, I got so excited I started sweating."

"They all said I was playing around," Fuentes said. "When they saw him on TV (Monday), they had smiles from ear to ear."

With Urgelles, Marlins relievers know they'll be in good hands. After all, on what turned out to be his last day as a paramedic, he helped revive a woman who nearly went into cardiac arrest.

"That day I saved a lady's life, and a couple of hours later I received a phone call with an offer to become the bullpen catcher for the Marlins," Urgelles said. "The whole day was exciting."

I would say so, wouldn’t you?