Meet Mark Minicozzi, a 31 year old utility player trying to make the San Francisco Giants roster this spring. On the surface, his situation doesn't seem like anything unusual for a professional baseball player; hundreds of players are in the same spot as he is at this time of year.
But if you've heard just how Minicozzi got to this point, you’ll see how his situation is about as unusual as it gets.
Drafted as a shortstop out of East Carolina University in 2005, Minicozzi got off to a promising start, posting a .321 average at low-A Saleim-Keiser that year, followed by a 77 RBI effort at San Jose in 2006.
But shortly after, Minicozzi's career appeared to be over before it began when he went down with several injuries that subsequently saw him cut from the organization in 2008.
For many players, that would signal the end of their chances at chasing a dream – but not Minicozzi.
Once recovered from back surgery, Minicozzi continued to play baseball across various independent leagues, even taking his career international; all in an effort to one day get a second chance at an MLB career.
That second chance came out of nowhere in 2012, when he attended a minor league game on a whim. The Giants Double-A affiliate, the Richmond Flying Squirrels, were playing a game near Minicozzi's home in Reading, PA.
Minicozzi expected nothing more than to take in a game and catch up with his former managers. But during that conversation, he got much more than a friendly greeting – he landed a tryout with the team.
He showed enough in that tryout that within 24 hours, Minicozzi was back in the Giants organization, and his career had been resurrected.
“I guess you could say I came straight from the stands,” said Minicozzi.
With the resilience that can only be compared to that of fictional baseball player Kenny Powers of HBO's “Eastbound and Down”, Minicozzi has played for four independent league 
teams in the U.S. and has appeared in places like Winnipeg, Quebec and even Nicaragua during his road back – nearly 10 years since being drafted.
His most recent team was Richmond, the very team that picked him from the stands. Minicozzi posted a .309 average and hit 10 home runs for them last season, and that showing was enough to get him an invite to Giants camp this year.
Whether or not he breaks camp with the team come April is only a bonus at this point, though he's trying his best - going 5-10 with a home run so far. The fact that he has an opportunity at all is amazing in itself.
“To be here, I can't even describe how awesome it is,” he says. “Every day I come to my locker at 6:45 a.m. and I can't stop smiling. You know, I've been a lot of places where you're not smiling.”
Meet more Giants prospects in the San Francisco Giants Prospect Series:
Clayton Blackburn & Christian Arroyo
Heath Hembree & Chris Stratton
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