Searching For Jose Lima: Readers Lend A Hand

Yesterday, we posted the email correspondence between us and our new bestfriendf4evah, Melissa Lima, who, for some daffy reason, is having trouble tracking down her ex-husband, pitcher Jose Lima. Many readers have offered to pitch in.

At the end of the Golden League baseball season in September, Lima was pitching for the Edmonton Capitals. He pitched for Long Beach or one of the California teams earlier in the season. I'm in Calgary and saw two games between Edmonton and Calgary. Lima sat at the end of the dugout and chatted with fans, joked around with them, gave away baseballs, hot-dogged it quite a lot, etc. Greg — Calgary, Alberta

Daulerio,

Greetings from the Long Beach Armada, where Jose Lima spent the 2009 summer on the mound for Long Beach in 11 games, putting together a 2.93 ERA. His ex-wife apparently called our GM looking for Lima during our season. He was traded to the Edmonton Capitals toward the end of the season where things went south — er, North — like his ERA.

It was great having "Lima Time" in Long Beach this season, and he is still just as full of all his antics as ever. Hoping he's back with our team next season. Although if he is, I wonder if we'd have an issue with Melissa showing up at the games to chase him off the mound. Actually, talk about a great minor league promotion!

Don't know if any of this will help in Melissa's quest to find him, but it should make for interesting fodder for your readership. Let me know if there's anything I can do to assist in your goal.

Josh Feldman
Director of Promotions / Broadcast
Long Beach Armada Baseball
2900 Orange Ave, Suite 203
Signal Hill, CA 90755

See? That wasn't so hard. He's either in California or Canada. As for Melissa, well, she's feeling a little under the weather: "Just got your message. I will call you later on today. I'm suffering in bed with a nasty sinus infection so i'm not up to talking quite yet. Enjoy your day!"

Will do!

Also of note, this isn't the first time Melissa has reached out to the Lima fan base. Reader Nick G. tells his own Find-a-Lima story:

I have a story about Melissa Lima I'd like to share. I don't expect anyone to believe this story, I still have trouble believing it myself, but I assure you that I am not creative enough to make something like this up, nor would I gain any satisfaction from telling a bogus story to a website. I don't have any way of proving this without a doubt, but I hope that you will give me the benefit fo the doubt on this.

About 6 years ago, I started to become a serious baseball fan. Like anyone, I love comeback stories, and so when Jose Lima came back from the dead to make 14 starts for the KC Royals, starting with a 7 game winning streak, I embraced his story. He's certainly had a colorful past, what with a 20 win season and being a journeyman and such. I am a Dodgers fan, and when he went to the team in 2004, led the team in wins with 13, and even pitched a complete game shutout against the Cardinals in the playoffs, I became one of his biggest fans. As a typical high-schooler, I had a Myspace account, and, in honor of his story, I littered my page with references to Jose Lima. While he didn't do much of anything past 2004, I left the acknowledgments up as a tribute to his improbable 2004 season, and the best game he ever pitched.

Fast forward to Spring 2007, I had moved on to college, but had felt no reason to remove the Jose Lima-inspired Myspace account. One day I checked my page and, completely out of the blue, I had gotten a message from none other than Melissa Lima. She told me that she had been looking for Jose on various websites for some time, and while she was unable to find him, she did find my makeshift Jose Lima fan page (most likely the only Jose Lima-inspired page ever made on Myspace). The reason she messaged me, she went on to say, was because when she saw my page, she remembered all of the various pieces of Lima-related baseball memorabilia left in her house. She told me that, if I gave her my mailing address, she would see what kind of stuff she could find of his, and send it to me. She, of course, had nothing to do with all this crap, I'm sure she didn't need constant reminders of her ex-husband. She felt that, as an avid fan, I would appreciate the items.

I assumed that it was just one of my friends screwing with me, but I messaged her back and forth for a week or so, and eventually sent her my address. I never expected anything to come of it but, sure enough, 3 weeks later I received a large package at my dorm room. I called a friend over to see me open it, and indeed, she wasn't lying. She sent me a frame piece commemorating his first start in 2003 since coming back from the Independent leagues, a win against the St. Louis Cardinals. It included a large photo of him, and the official lineup card from that game, along with a message from then-manager Tony Pena congratulating him on his career comeback. I do not have a lot of authentic MLB memorabilia, and this frame is now my prized possession. I thanked her profusely, and encouraged her to send me anything else that she found of his (she never did, which is quite alright).

If you'd like, I can take a picture of it and send it to be posted. And if you do not believe any of that story, I encourage you to go ahead and ask her if she remembers the college kid in Michigan with the Jose Lima myspace.

Sincerely,
Nick G.
East Lansing, MI

For now, the search continues...

****

Thanks for your continued support of Deadspin. Barry Petchesky and Special Sauce will be offering cold beverages throughout the nighttime hours. Now, it's off to go get that prescription filled.

Send an email to A.J. Daulerio, the author of this post, at ajd@deadspin.com.

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