COMPTON, Calif. -- Baseball can sometimes be a bitter sport, especially for young men coming up through the Minor Leagues, who, at a very young age, are told that their dream of making it to the Majors is not going to happen. Johnny Washington was told by the Texas Rangers at age 21 that he may not have the skills to make it all the way and asked if he would like to start a coaching career. Washington declined and started a three-year odyssey that has given him a second chance with the Los Angeles Dodgers organization.

"Being that I am somewhat of a Dodger fan, it was first a shock and then a blessing and an opportunity that I have been longing for, for many years," said Washington. "All I wanted was a chance to play and now I'm getting it. Hopefully I can make it to the big leagues, and you can't ask more than that."

Drafted in the seventh round by the Rangers out of San Jacinto College in 2004, Washington was a scrappy middle infielder with a light bat. In the spring of 2007, Washington met with Rangers brass, who loved his makeup and attitude and offered him a chance to become a Minor League coach.

"They thought I had a good knowledge of the game and there was a logjam of shortstops in the organization," recalled Washington. "I had just started switch-hitting the year before and was slow to take to it. I just loved the game so much, I wasn't ready to stop. It was a tough decision."

The young infielder went to an independent league, playing in the South Coast League for Wally Backman and in the Frontier League, both good experiences, but his break came during the offseasons when he returned to his hometown of Compton and worked as an instructor at the newly opened Urban Youth Academy.

"I'd known about Johnny for years, and he was not only a good ballplayer but a really fine young man," said Urban Youth Academy director Darrell Miller. "I had called the Rangers and they had told me they wanted Johnny to become a coach, which I thought was fine, because we also want to develop not just players here at the academy, but coaches and and support people in baseball as well. I thought at the start it wasn't his best decision to turn down the coaching, but I had to respect and admire that in his heart he had to keep playing. He also was a natural as an instructor and our younger kids gravitated towards him, maybe [because] he was closer to their age or maybe because he just had a knack for teaching the game."

When he wasn't working with the players, Washington continued to work on his game at the facility under the tutelage of the academy staff that includes former Major Leaguer Ken Landreaux, who grew up with and played Little League with Washington's dad, John Washington Sr.

"I remember when he first got released by Texas and everybody was gone to Spring Training and he was here at the academy," recalled Landreaux, who won a World Series championship with the Dodgers in 1981. "Johnny would be here every day by himself, so we started going to the cage and working out and find a way to help him make more contact. He worked really hard at it and got signed by the independent league, and he started doing really well."

"He really worked at his switch-hitting," said Miller. "He's a natural right-handed hitter and he went to hitting left-handed 70 percent of the time to broaden his game. He started switch-hitting at 20 and that isn't easy. It's much easier to become a switch-hitter in Little League or high school, and a lot of people don't know who they are at 17, 18 or 19 years old. Johnny found himself and the player he could be at a slightly older age, and now he's going to have the chance to make the best of it."

As a graduate of the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities program, Washington has long been a favorite of RBI founder John Young, who contacted various teams, including the Dodgers, about Washington.

"He never really got an opportunity to play and all he wants to do is play, " said Young. "I got in touch with [Dodgers assistant GM for player development] De Jon Watson, and some of his player development people knew Johnny and they're giving him an opportunity.

"This is a prime example of people working together for the good of the kids. I think what helped Johnny is whenever you instruct young kids, the teacher often becomes the student, so by working with the kids, I think it gave him a better understanding of the game. And Kenny Landreaux is one of the best instructors I've ever been associated with, and Johnny was able to work out daily at a quality facility and was in shape and prepared when that phone finally rang."

Washington agrees that his time working with the kids at the academy made him grow up and be a better player.

"Maybe the fact I was young, I wasn't really free," said Washington, who reports to the Dodgers' new Spring Training facility in Glendale, Ariz., on March 10. "I played tight, I practiced tight, my inner talents were never able to project outward because I was so serious I never really had any fun.

"Now that I'm over here at the academy and work with the kids and watching them have fun, it brought back the kid in me and enabled me, at 24, to go out and have fun, be free and play the game like I did back in Little League. Roy Campanella once said, 'To play this game, you have to have a lot of little boy in you,' and that's what I will take with me down to Arizona -- the little boy in me will be out playing for the Dodgers."