It's a strange tale Ryan Vogelsong tells, and he spins it with quiet intensity, like it's a campfire ghost story.

That he is telling his story while sitting in the Giants' clubhouse, wearing a Giants uniform, is what makes the story amazing.

It's a simple baseball story, really. It's about a childlike loyalty in a mercenary world, it's about a mystery that is only partially solved, and it winds through places like Pittsburgh, the Japanese minor leagues, Venezuela and Fresno.

Bruce Bochy says it's one of the most amazing baseball-journey stories he's ever heard, and Bochy is manager of a team that won a World Series by tapping the player pipeline from Nowheresville.

The Giants called up Vogelsong from Fresno 53 days ago after Barry Zito injured a foot. Since then, the 33-year-old journeyman, who has not dominated anywhere, has dominated. In his eight starts, he has posted one-fifth of a Cy Young Award-quality season: 4-1 with a 1.84 ERA and a complete game.

Vogelsong doesn't appear to be doing anything special, but when he pitches, the catcher's mitt rarely moves.

The Giants drafted Vogelsong in 1998, fifth round. He made the big team in '01 but soon was traded to Pittsburgh. What took him so long to make it back to his baseball home, and to become a real pitcher?

The short answer: Vogelsong was throwing a bullpen session in Pittsburgh one day in 2006. It was not going well. Pitching coach Jim Colborn told him, "Vogey, you're just going to be one of those guys who figures it out late."

The words stung Vogelsong. He was 29. It was already late.

"But that kind of stuck with me through this whole (journey)," Vogelsong says, "that I'm gonna figure it out here one of these days."

'Who's gonna sign me?'

Let's pick up the story midway through last season. Vogelsong is having a lousy season for the Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs, a Phillies farm team. They cut him.

He is at the point in his career at which, by standard reasoning, baseball pulls the plug.

"That was my biggest fear," Vogelsong says. "I was never gonna quit, but I didn't know how many more chances I was gonna get, if I was gonna get any. I just turned 33 when I was released. I've had a terrible season in Triple-A. Who's gonna sign me?

"If you look at my track record, nothing was indicating I was gonna turn it around, you know? I'm sitting there going, 'Man, am I gonna get another chance?' "

Harsh self-assessment

Why he'd been given so many chances to that point is a mystery. Could be because he's durable, has four nice pitches, and baseball people like his makeup. He works hard, takes his job seriously. And maybe he has given off the vibe of a guy on the verge of figuring out how to succeed.

Six days after the Phillies cut Vogelsong, the Angels signed him to a minor-league contract. One more chance.

Vogelsong is asked what a scout would say if he was looking at the Vogelsong of the past and the current version.

He says, "The young guy: good stuff, good arm, inconsistent. Really good at times, but below average most of the time. It was a tough time in Pittsburgh, but looking at it from their standpoint, it was hard to put me in games, because you never knew what you were going to get. I never knew what I was going to get. ... It was mentally draining being like that."

Same deal during Vogelsong's three seasons in Japan (2007-09, with the Hanshin Tigers and Orix Buffaloes). He was a little more consistent, but American pitchers in Japan don't get much leeway. One manager told him, "If you give up one run, I'm taking you out." Vogelsong gave up a run in the fifth and was yanked. Twice he got sent down to the Japanese minor leagues.

His time in Japan, much of it, was difficult, frustrating, discouraging.

"All it did was make me stronger as a person," he says.

Flipping the switch

Fast-forward to last summer. Vogelsong signs with the Angels, goes to Salt Lake City, pitches well. Then he decides to play winter ball in Venezuela, pitches well. What happened? How did the switch get flipped?

Vogelsong can't tell you, exactly. Maybe it was his subconscious response to the last-chance pressure. Maybe it simply took this long for the various parts, physical and emotional, to mesh.

In between Triple-A jobs last season, Vogelsong did some thinking.

"You really, at that point, have to sit down and evaluate," he says. "That's when I just really focused on the mental part of my game, and decided that if I got another chance, it was gonna be different."

Between Salt Lake City and Venezuela, Vogelsong had the best two months of his career.

"I really don't have an answer to what the difference is," Vogelsong says. "Other than just being around, being through the situations before, and handling them different than I did the first time."

Loyalty important

His catcher in Caracas was Guillermo Rodriguez, who is a minor-league catching instructor for the Giants. He asked Vogelsong, "Have you signed with anybody (for 2011)? Do you want me to call the Giants?"

Vogelsong told Rodriguez he'd been trying to get back with the Giants since they traded him in '01.

The Giants didn't call Vogelsong right away. The Dodgers did, and made him an offer. Vogelsong asked Rodriguez to contact the Giants again and relay this message, in essence: I don't want to be a Dodger. I am a Giant. If you want me, I'll sign for whatever you want to pay me.

To understand Vogelsong's loyalty to the Giants, it helps to know that he admires two men: his father, who has worked for the same shoe-manufacturing company since he was 17; and Cal Ripken Jr., who played his 21-year career with the Orioles.

"So it's kind of bred into me that way, I'm loyal to the team that gave me my chance, that drafted me," Vogelsong says. "I just love this organization. I have great memories from when I was here the first time.

"I knew Rags was here, and Gardy and Sabes and Bobby Evans and Tidrow. The way they treated players and the way the organization was, I just wanted to try to get back here."

(That's pitching coach Dave Righetti, bullpen coach Mark Gardner, general manager Brian Sabean, vice president of baseball operations Bobby Evans and vice president of player personnel Dick Tidrow.)

Sweet second chance

Vogelsong pitched well in spring training, set himself apart from a group fighting for the extra-starter job, and was sent to Fresno as the No. 1 starter-in-waiting. Then Zito tweaked his foot.

Vogelsong suddenly was the guy whose true love dumped him in high school, and 10 years later, just after she wins the Miss Universe title, she wants to give him another shot.

Speaking of sweethearts, Vogelsong's wife, Nicole, has been the voice telling him he couldn't quit.

"If I broke every bone in my body, she'd tell me to keep going," Vogelsong says. "I'm the realist, she's the optimist. ... I'm definitely not sitting here without her support, that's for sure."

The Vogelsongs (they have a 22-month-old son) live on Russian Hill. Ryan drives to work along the Embarcadero, a 15-minute commute through a virtual postcard. Tony Bennett might as well be riding shotgun.

"I wish the trade would've never happened," Vogelsong says. "I wish I'd been here this whole time. But if 10 years ago you came up to me and say, 'This is what you're going to have to go through to get to this point,' I'd go through it, because it's done nothing but make me a better person, a better baseball player, and it's made me appreciate being a major-league baseball player a whole lot more."

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