Roland Johnson has now signed two generations of pitchers from the same family. A faulty appliance had a role to play in that happening.
“It’s kind of a crazy story,” said Binghamton Mets reliever Mike Hepple, a Connecticut native. “My dad [Peter] fixes appliances. He owns an appliance company. At the time I was playing independent ball. Roland called him to fix his dryer or something like that. And my dad was over there and was like, ‘Hey, my son plays independent ball. You should just take a look at him.’ Roland was like, ‘Sure, yeah, I’ll look at him.