The Post-Gazette found this link to a blog entry in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel website that indicates that Randall Simon (along with Mark Bellhorn and others) will showcase his, uh, talents for the Brewers in an open tryout, five and a half years after treating the city of Milwaukee to one of the most inexplicable moments in recent baseball history (which Pat embedded a week or so ago, but is funny enough to embed twice):
Barring some sort of miracle, of course, he's not going to make the team. He wasn't any good five years ago, and what theoretical sliver of upside there might be is surely outweighed by the possibility that he pushes Bernie Brewer off the slide or something.
Since leaving the Pirates for the last time, Simon has had the sort of weird career characteristic of baseball journeymen. He briefly played for the Devil Rays after the Pirates dumped him, then was a star in Tijuana in 2005, joining former Angel George Arias as the main run producer. He briefly went to Japan to play for the Orix Buffaloes and was horrible, and he came back to Tijuana, hit like crazy again, and scored a minor league deal with the Rangers. He hit pretty well for their AAA affiliate in Oklahoma, then got traded to the Phillies, and briefly landed back in the bigs (who knows why). He apparently played for Mexican teams in both Tijuana and Veracruz in 2007, then rejoined former Pirates teammate Bobby Hill while playing for the independent league Newark Bears in 2008.
All this sounds a bit like the background to the new movie The Wrestler, but I like to think it's a pretty interesting life. Then again, I like Tijuana a lot more than most non-underage Americans do. Either way, I give Simon credit for persistence.