Season in review about nothing: Daniel Coulombe, ‘The Diplomat’s Club.’

Daniel Coulombe

Pitcher Daniel Coulombe made nine major-league appearances for the A’s in September, and 10 in the previous two years with the Dodgers. (Getty Images)

This is Part 10 of a series in which every member of the 2015 Dodgers has his season juxtaposed with an episode of the greatest sitcom of all-time. Don’t take it too seriously.

Daniel Coulombe, LHP.

Key stats: Majors: five games, zero starts, 8 1/3 innings, 6 BB, 7 K, 7.56 ERA.
AAA Oklahoma City: 38 games, zero starts, 41 1/3 innings, 24 BB, 41 K, 3.27 ERA.

Seinfeld episode: “The Diplomat’s Club” (season 6, episode 22).

Key quote: “Oh, our stupid friend freaked out the pilot. Single-handedly delayed the plane a whole hour. Can you believe that?”

The connection between Daniel Coulombe and a Seinfeld episode about a pilot is a bit of a stretch. Then again, it’s a bit of a stretch that Daniel Coulombe is alive at all.

The 26-year-old lefty started the season in Triple-A and ended it as a member of the Oakland A’s, who got him in a Sept. 10 trade for cash. In between, Coulombe was recalled from the minors and sent back on five separate occasions. He made one relief appearance for the Dodgers in May, three in June, and one more in July. That’s five games, none of which were particularly close when Coulombe entered. You could have blinked and missed all of it.

Without a doubt, the best story involving Coulombe this year emerged in spring training.

His grandfather, a flight engineer in World War II, was spared his life by a German fighter pilot during an air raid over Berlin. Forty years later, the American and German veterans met for the first time. Had the German shot down Bertrand Coulombe’s B-17, Daniel Coulombe certainly wouldn’t be alive. It’s a cool story, and it’s true.

In “The Diplomat’s Club,” all four characters have deeply involved storylines that somehow manage to overlap — the classic Seinfeld formula at its best. With the exception of George (who goes to great lengths to work out his white guilt), every character is impacted by a commercial airline pilot in some way. The pilot doesn’t have a speaking line in the episode, maybe because he wasn’t actually an actor. Check out the back story:

Bertrand Coulombe didn’t have a speaking role in the Dodgers’ season, but he played a small-yet-vital role nonetheless.

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About J.P. Hoornstra

J.P. Hoornstra covers the Dodgers, Angels and Major League Baseball for the Orange County Register, Los Angeles Daily News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Torrance Daily Breeze, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News, San Bernardino Sun, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Whittier Daily News and Redlands Daily Facts. Before taking the beat in 2012, J.P. covered the NHL for four years. UCLA gave him a degree once upon a time; when he graduated on schedule, he missed getting Arnold Schwarzenegger's autograph on his diploma by five months.