When Lew Ford was signed to a minor-league contract by the Baltimore Orioles, it looked like he was picked up to give the organization some added depth in the outfield.

Well, after a few weeks of killing it at Class AAA Norfolk, Ford was called up by the Orioles and started in left field on Sunday.

Even the Triple-A contract was a bit improbable because Ford had been playing for an independent league team called the Long Island Ducks, pretty much because he had some friends on the time and just wasn't ready to stop playing baseball.

It didn't much matter that Ford was 0-for-3 with a walk. Baltimore won and Ford was back in the big leagues for the first time since his time with the Twins ended in 2007.

Ford told Everett Cook of the Baltimore Sun: "This is kind of more than I dreamed of. The chance that this would happen is just so small. I'm a very realistic person and I wasn't expecting this at all when I started off this year, to make it back here is ... I'm just so happy."

Read Cook's full story here.

Associated Press - Ap, Star Tribune

And Ford told Steve Melewski of masnsports.com just how sweet it is to get back to the majors: "I love playing the game. I was doing it because I love it, not for the money or fame. I love the competition and everything about baseball. It kind of got me back to that by going to the independent league, why I'm playing. I'm going to enjoy this 100 times more than the first time. This is just awesome."

Here's Melewski's story.

And, in case you've forgotten, here are Ford's career stats with the Twins.

Welcome back, Lewwwwwwww. And we'll be following you at @CaptainLew20.