KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- When a mother travels halfway around the world at a moment’s notice and stays in a hotel for two weeks, it would make sense for her son to take a second job to pay for it all.

So when Chicago White Sox pitcher Shane Lindsay returns to his native Australia once the season ends, he already has some work lined up. Always fascinated with heavy machinery, Lindsay will work five days a week operating an excavator for a construction company.

It isn’t the first foray into construction for the 26-year-old. He used to own a watering truck, working as an independent contractor for road-building projects.

After the new year, as spring training draws closer, Lindsay’s schedule will consist of a workout at 5:30 a.m., reporting to the construction site at 6:30 a.m. and then another workout before he calls it a night.

And actually, all his hard work isn’t completely to help pay his mom’s credit card bills. Lindsay already had the job lined up before he learned of his Sept. 1 promotion to the big leagues.

When the promotion came, Kerry Lindsay immediately purchased a $4,000 round-trip plane ticket to the United States, made visits to Detroit and Minneapolis and lived out of a hotel for two weeks. She just returned to Australia this past Thursday.

In total, Lindsay said the visit cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $8,000, but the self-proclaimed mama’s boy said it was the memories that mattered and there was no way of putting a price tag on that.