From curveballs to Laffer curves

It was just another day in outfielder Gary Johnson's rollercoaster journey to Major League Baseball.

Now an MBA candidate at Wharton, Johnson had nothing to hide when a man came to his AAA Salt Lake City clubhouse for random drug testing.

He knew something was up, though, after he saw one of his teammates use the dugout bathroom instead of showing up for the test.

"It's one of those experiences you'll never forget," Johnson said. "That day I'll never forget - when I realized this drug issue is a huge issue and I get to watch what's going on."

That wasn't all Johnson learned during his six years in the Anaheim Angels organization, now called the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Drafted by the club in 1999, Johnson first spent time playing at California-Berkeley before embarking on his two-year Mormon mission to Spain.

Johnson's first professional stop was Boise, Idaho, where the southpaw batted .314 in 1999 - and it was there that he was initiated into the fraternity of Minor League Basbeall.

Teammate Robb Quinlan, now a utility player for the Angels, recommended that Johnson sit on the bench, close his eyes and focus on hitting to end a slump.

"The whole time we had it set up that a guy was going to crawl underneath the bench and light his shoes on fire," Quinlan said.

Johnson also saw how some guys were desperate to stay with the team and why they may have chosen to take steroids.

"It was almost like respectable in a moral sense because he's just trying to make it in life and provide for this family," Johnson said of one of his teammates who juiced.

While playing for the AAA Salt Lake Bees, Johnson's climb through the ranks was interrupted by a wrist injury in 2002.

But rehabbing at his California home didn't turn out to be all that bad.

Arm in a sling, Johnson met Claire Morgan, who had just moved to Palo Alto, Calif., to attend graduate school at Stanford.

"He told me he broke it playing baseball," Morgan, now his wife, said. "I was imagining some geeky softball league."

According to Morgan, Johnson also told her he worked for Disney - technically true because it owned the Angels at the time.

Back in playing shape, Johnson boldly called up former Angels general manager Bill Stoneman and asked if he could come in for some batting practice to prove himself. It was big leagues or bust in 2003.

His ultimate reward came via a note taped to his apartment door - and he was on the next flight to Anaheim.

That same night he got his first major league hit, a double off of the Red Sox's John Burkett.

"Nomar Garciaparra was on second base and he patted me on the butt and said congratulations," Johnson said.

Ultimately, his major league stat line ended up as 3-for-8, with one walk and one run in five games. And that was okay, because Johnson, who sometimes buried his head in a book in the clubhouse, always had other goals in mind.

"I think sometimes he got criticized for that kind of stuff, but he definitely played well and put up the numbers to prove it to everyone," Quinlan said.

After leaving baseball for good in 2004 - he now plays basketball to stay in shape - he didn't have another job lined up.

"I didn't have much to say [during interviews], it was like yeah, 'it's cool you played baseball, but what can you bring to the table here?'" Johnson recalled.

A small venture capital firm in Boston took a chance on him and then, always wanting to go to graduate school, he enrolled in Wharton, where his story now pauses.

"My whole life has been a little bit odd," he said. "I'm kind of on my own track."

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