LIZ NARRATION: Raian Baute remembers the moment vividly. It was the summer of 2010, he was 16. The last day of a four day baseball tournament, featuring some of the best teams from all over Venezuela. His team had made it all the way to the championship.
[SOUNDS OF BASEBALL FANFARE]
They were playing a team from Los Salinas, near the capital, Caracas, and the game was coming down to the wire. It was the Bottom of the ninth. Game tied. Two outs. Bases loaded.
Raian Colmenares: Había tres hombre en base. Había era último inning, dos outs (there was three men on base, it was the last inning, two outs)
LIZ NARRATION: And Raian came up to bat. Four days of baseball now came down to him.
[SOUND OF HEARTBEAT]
[CRACK OF BASEBALL BAT]
[CROWD CHEERING]
[PROPULSIVE MUSIC BEGINS]
LIZ NARRATION: He hit a hard line drive, straight into the outfield — a walk off double. All his teammates ran onto the field and jumped on top of him.
Raian Colmenares: Para mí, es la mejor etapa que yo viví en la vida. (But for me, that is the best stage of my life that I’ve lived.)
LIZ NARRATION Raian and his closest friends playing baseball, chasing glory together, and winning — it was the best time of his life.
Están ganando los Marliiiiiins 2-0. The deep, elongated, warm voice of Felo Ramirez (que en paz descanse) on our AM radio every week, calling win after win for the-then Florida Marlins, is a core memory of my childhood. You all know I’m Venezuelan… and even though we’re killing it en futbol en la Copa America right now, el beisbol is where we shiiiine.
Only the Dominican Republic have sent more players than Venezuela to Major League Baseball here in the US. I still have my Miguel Cabrera jersey, one of the most accomplished Venezuelan peloteros of all time. It’s always been Venezuela and the DR at the top of the roster, filling Major League Baseball stadiums across the US with platano and arepa power.
[PROPULSIVE MUSIC ENDS]
It’s still the dream of many Venezuelan kids to be a big leaguer. But in the past 10 years, since Venezuela’s economic collapse and the failing, authoritarian Maduro government, a fifth of the population has left. More than a million have fled, sometimes by foot, to Peru, including Raian. And when he arrived, he found a country that did not care about baseball. No more gloves, balls, baseball diamonds — he had to press pause on his dreams of baseball glory. But you already know how this story goes — giving up baseball was not an option.
[PROPULSIVE MUSIC RETURNS]
Today’s episode is about a ragtag team of Venezuelans who are determined to keep their baseball dreams alive, no matter what.
I’m Liz Rebecca and you’re listening to In Confianza.
[PROPULSIVE MUSIC ENDS]
LIZ NARRATION: Reporter Anthony Wallace was in Lima, where he met Raian and Los Astros, a ragtag team of Venezuelans who are determined to keep their dreams of baseball glory alive, no matter what.
ANTHONY NARRATION: Growing up, Raian Baute’s family treated baseball like a religion. When he was just four, his parents christened him with a bat and glove.
Raian Colmenares: Mis padres son deportistas. Desde pequeño, desde los cuatro años, nos inculcaron el deporte. Y qué bonita manera que fue béisbol. (My parents are athletes….from a young age, from four years old, they instilled in us the importance of sports. And what a beautiful way it was through baseball.)
ANTHONY NARRATION: Raian fell in love. And like so many boys born in the 90s in the Americas — myself included — his big dream was to play professional baseball — in the big leagues, Major League Baseball.
Raian Colmenares: Ese es el sueño cuando tú empiezas a jugar todo el mundo quiere ser como lo grandes liga. Todo mundo quiere llegar a grandes ligas. (That is the dream when you start playing, everyone wants to be like the major leaguers. Everyone wants to make it to the major leagues.)
ANTHONY NARRATION: Raian, I think it’s safe to say, had a much better shot than someone like me.
[ENERGETIC MUSIC BEGINS]
He was really good. He played shortstop – the position the best player on the team always plays. And he was good enough to make his way onto Venezuela’s national team, and play in the Caribbean Series, against the Dominican Republic and Cuba.
Raian Colmenares: Fue con una ministra caribe. Este fue en Dominicana. Fue en el 2009 (I represented Venezuela in a Caribbean mini-series that included the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Cuba.)
ANTHONY NARRATION: Some of his baseball buddies made it all the way to The MLB.
Raian Colmenares: Este una se llama Franklin Barreto…
(Archival audio: Barreto)
Raian Colmenares: Osvaldo Cabrera.
(Archival audio: Oswaldo Cabrera on the Yankees)
ANTHONY NARRATION: But Raian developed injury problems—back issues and hernias. The pain got so bad…it eclipsed the dream.
Raian Colmenares: Y entonces cada vez que entrenaba era dolores, llegaba a mi casa con dolores. Y decidí a estudiar y me gradué en la universidad. (And so, every time I trained, there were pains; I would come home in pain….So, I decided to study and I graduated from university.)
ANTHONY NARRATION: He talked with his parents and together they made the heartbreaking decision to end his baseball career — he was only 17.
[ENERGETIC MUSIC ENDS]
So Raian reset his life. He got a college degree, found himself a solid career as an insurance broker. He got married to his wife, Rosemary. She had a ten month old son – Rodrigo – and so Raian became a stepfather. Naturally, Raian passed down the family tradition and little Rodrigo took to it. By the time he was just three, they were playing baseball together almost everyday. In reality, Rosemary said, Raian isn’t Rodrigo’s stepdad, he’s just his dad. The game brought them together and gave them purpose. Raian’s dream didn’t pan out. But he and his young family had a new one: to see their son make it to the big leagues. And just as Rodrigo was getting to the age of starting school and joining baseball teams, unimaginably bad things started to happen all around the Bautes family.
[INTROSPECTIVE MUSIC BEGINS]
Venezuela’s economy…collapsed.
And the country’s President, Nicholas Maduro, became a dictator.
Maduro’s regime rigged elections…killed protestors.
[ARCHIVAL ENGLISH NEWS SEGMENT ABOUT VENEZUELA]
There were food, medicine, and fuel shortages.
Raian Colmenares: Crisis de la gasolina. Crisis de la comida (Gasoline crisis, food crisis, the wages weren’t enough for anything)
ANTHONY NARRATION: The inflation rate reached 1 million percent.
[ARCHIVAL ENGLISH NEWS SEGMENT ABOUT VENEZUELA]
The GDP fell by 75% — that’s three times as bad as the U.S.’s Great Depression.
[ARCHIVAL ENGLISH NEWS SEGMENT ABOUT VENEZUELA]
The bolivar, the Venezuelan currency that Raian was bringing in to support his family, became almost completely worthless. They couldn’t afford food or healthcare, even when it was available. By 2018 — about 4 years into the worst of the crisis — Raian decided that a drastic change was the only way to keep his family safe.
Raian Colmenares: Pero yo decidí salir por el niño, por mi hijo o me entiendes qué futuro le voy a dar yo a él allá no. Sí, no había futuro pues. (But I decided to leave for the sake of the child, for my son, you understand? What future could I give him there? No, there was no future.)
ANTHONY NARRATION: When Raian was just 24, his son was 6, and he became one of the nearly 8 million Venezeulans to leave their country — that’s a fifth of the population. And Raian had to do it alone — no Rodrigo, no Rosemary, neither of his own parents or and of his siblings. He got on a bus and rode for 7 days — out of Venezuela, all the way through Colombia and Ecuador, and finally into Peru. He arrived in Lima by himself with everything and everyone he knew and loved over 1000 miles away, still back in Venezuela.
Raian Colmenares: Yo salí solo primero. Claro que es difícil. (I went alone at first. Of course it was difficult).
[INTROSPECTIVE MUSIC ENDS]
ANTHONY NARRATION: Within a few months, Rodrigo and Rosemary were able to join Raian. The young parents both got jobs at restaurants, sending whatever extra money they could back to their family in Venezuela. They were surviving — but everything was different. Miranda, their home state in Venezuela is tropical and green with beautiful beaches and all their family and friends. Lima is cloudy, completely brown and barren, and they didn’t know anyone.
Raian Colmenares: Todo extraño todo de Venezuela. La, las playas, la gente, el calor de hogar, la familia, las calles, todo, todo, todo. (I miss everything about Venezuela. The beaches, the people, the warmth of home, the family, the streets, everything, everything, everything.)
ANTHONY NARRATION: And on top of everything else — they lost baseball.
Raian Colmenares: se conoce como un país futbolero pues me entiendes. (Peru as you know is a soccer country,)
ANTHONY NARRATION: Peru is crazy about soccer — almost exclusively. When Raian and his family arrived, baseball basically did not exist there. There was no major pro league, 0 Peruvian players in MLB. When the Pan-American games came to Lima in 2019 and they had to build a baseball field to host them, some people living nearby had no idea what the dirt diamond even was.
Raian Colmenares: Ni si queda nos tramos guantes ni nada para acá. (We didn’t even bring gloves or anything with us.)
ANTHONY NARRATION: Now…They do sell baseball bats in Peru, but only as a weapon for self defense. Raian and Rodrigo couldn’t even get themselves a ball and a glove to play catch. Rodrigo said he was shocked that their new country didn’t have baseball. At 6 years old, he couldn’t fathom there’d be a country on Earth that didn’t love his favorite sport. All they could do was watch YouTube videos of their favorite players — they couldn’t play themselves. Their pastime and their dream were completely gone.
They felt lost.
Raian Colmenares: Estaba por perdido. Estaba por perdido y incluso que practicar a vez bor estaba por perdido. (I was lost. I was lost and even practicing sometimes, I felt I was lost.)
[THOUGHTFUL MUSIC BEGINS]
ANTHONY NARRATION: Four years after arriving in Peru, Raian was working long hours at a chicken shop. One day, exhausted mentally physically, he was scrolling Facebook. And he saw a post that stopped him in his tracks: photos of Venezuela kids in matching uniforms playing catch and hitting balls in a park in Lima. They were building a team, and they had gear. The post was like a burst of hope. Baseball was suddenly right around the corner! But with his current work schedule, there was no way Raian could take Rodrigo to practice. So he made a plan.
Raian Colmenares: Dije bueno, voy a comprar una moto así le médico más tiempo al niño. (And I said, well, I’m going to buy a motorcycle so I can spend more time with the kid.)
ANTHONY NARRATION: He quit his job, bought a mototaxi so he could set his own hours, and reached out to the coach to sign himself and Rodrigo up — coach and player, father and son. It wasn’t just a hobby to keep his kid busy, or a way for a father to pass his favorite game down to his son. Baseball was about living again, it was about survival – and we’ll get into all that later. But 11-year-old Rodrigo wasn’t thinking that deeply at that time.
Rodrigo Colmenares: Estuve feliz porque iba a jugar de nuevo y durante cuatro años. (I was happy I got to play again after four years.)
ANTHONY NARRATION: He was just happy to play again. The dream was back on.
LIZ NARRATION: Raian and Rodrigo had finally found a chance to continue their dream of playing baseball. When we come back, the story of a rag-tag Venezuelan baseball team with big dreams and the challenge that they fight against. This is IN Confianza.
[THOUGHTFUL MUSIC BEGINS]
[NATURAL SOUNDS OF CITY LIFE/PEOPLE IN A PARK]
ANTHONY NARRATION: This is Parque number 7, in Lima’s Las Flores neighborhood. It’s a lively Wednesday afternoon and, like they do every Monday and Wednesday, dozens of young baseball players and their families are gathering – including Rodrigo and Raian. These days, the father and son are busy playing baseball almost everyday. Raian said his life is consumed completely by mototaxi work, training Rodrigo one on one, going to team practice, and sleeping — and this…is just how he likes it.
[PERCUSSIVE MUSIC BEGINS]
ANTHONY NARRATION: The team is called Los Astros. Actually they call it an escuela de beisbol. The Astros started in 2020, when the group’s founder Ramon — another Venezuelan dad in Peru — started playing with his son in the park. People saw them and they gradually attracted more players, parents, and coaches. Now, they’ve got 3 teams and kids from ages 4-12, about 40 in total. It’s at this big dirt soccer field complex — Parque number 7 — where they practice. There’s no outfield grass or backstop — just some goalposts they have to work around. They bring their own bases. Their field is in the San Juan de Lurigancho district. It takes about 45 minutes to drive there from the nicer part of Lima by the beach where all the tourists stay. And everytime I’ve gone to San Juan de Lurigancho, I’ve had multiple Ubers cancel the ride when they see the destination — “too dangerous” they say. The neighborhood has been called “Little Venezuela” because it’s home to so many of the 1.5 million Venezuelans that have moved to Peru. It’s crowded and bustling — multistory apartment buildings and tuk tuks honking their horns, vendors selling tequeños and arepas — Venezuelan cheese sticks and cornmeal cakes. I went with my friend and trusty translator Christian. At the far end of the field, past all the soccer players, the kids were playing catch and getting warmed up. And their moms were setting up lawn chairs and chatting.
Anthony: Hola…
ANTHONY NARRATION: Right away one of the kids recognized my Arizona Diamondbacks hat.
[PERCUSSIVE MUSIC ENDS]
Boy: Antonio?
Anthony: Oh, conoces?
Boy: Arizona!
Anthony: Diamondbacks. Es mi favorito. Yo soy de Arizona,
Mother: Él es de Arizona.
Anthony: No me gusta Dodgers.
ANTHONY NARRATION: Having lived in Peru for awhile, it was the first time in months I had anyone to talk to baseball about with!
Anthony: Ah, conoces algunos Jugadores de Arizona?
Rodrigo: Eh, Randy Johnson. eh? Gabriel moreno.
Anthony: Sí.
ANTHONY NARRATION: It made me feel more at home — I’m not a huge soccer person either. One Mom, Roxana, told me that it’s almost like during practices, this dirt field in Lima turns into a little piece of Venezuela.
Woman: Eso es una emoción grande porque sentimos una parte de nuestro país aquí y de tener un pedazo de nuestra tierra aquí. (There’s a lot of emotion because we feel a part of our country here and to have a piece of our land here.)
ANTHONY NARRATION: Peruvians love soccer, it’s in their blood, she said. But as Venezuelans, baseball is in their blood. Baseball is everything.
Woman: Para nosotros, el béisbol es, este es todo. Si. (For us, baseball is everything.)
[STRING BASED MUSIC BEGINS]
ANTHONY NARRATION: A lot of the moms told me about a similar dark time when they first moved to Peru — a lot like what Raian went through at first — no extended family, no familiar food, and no baseball.
Anthony: Cómo fue sin jugar? Triste? (How was it without baseball?)
Woman 2: Sí, sí, muy triste. Porque encerrado en cuatro paredes no tenían la posibilidad pues. (Very sad. Because being locked up within four walls without, uh, recreating, so to speak, they didn’t have the possibility….)
ANTHONY NARRATION: They were stuck in their rooms, stuck in a routine of school, home, sleep, school, home, sleep. There was nothing to look forward to, nothing to dream about. Rosemary — Raian’s wife — said that finding the Los Astros team felt like a light at the end of the tunnel.
Woman 2: Una alegría porque vimos como el salud al final del túnel. (A joy because we saw light at the end of the tunnel.)
ANTHONY NARRATION: Another mom named Carmen said it was the best thing that’s happened to their family.
Woman 3: No sé por lo menos en la experiencia de nosotros como familia, lo mejor que nos ha pasado el béisbol. (I don’t know, at least in our experience as a family, the best thing that has happened to us)
ANTHONY NARRATION: The kids have baseball and the whole family now has community. Parents come and hang out the whole practice. And having a little refuge here is extra important, because Lima is not always a hospitable place for Venezuelans.
[STRING BASED MUSIC ENDS]
The xenophobia is intense, and everywhere. I saw it myself, many times.
[MYSTERIOUS MUSIC BEGINS]
When I told one of my Spanish teachers in Lima that I do reporting on migration, she went off on a shocking anti-Venezuelan rant. She said they’re all criminals and prostitutes, that she won’t get on a bus if the driver’s Venezuelan. So I wasn’t really surprised when one of the team’s coaches, Franklin, told me the story of the previous field they practiced at.
Franklin Lopez: mira, nosotros iniciamos en la zona de canto grande. (Yes, look, we started in the Canto Grande area.)
ANTHONY NARRATION: The new, growing club was practicing one day when some Peruvians who lived nearby paid them a visit. They told the coach directly – “we don’t want you here.” And the only reason is that they were Venezeulans. It wasn’t anything they hadn’t heard before, but these people didn’t stop at some rude comments.
Franklin Lopez: Nos sacaron por xenofobia, por que no querían a los venezolanos? (We were expelled for xenophobia because they didn’t want Venezuelans)
ANTHONY NARRATION: They sent the police to kick them out…
[MYSTERIOUS MUSIC ENDS]
Fortunately this field has been working out fine for more than a year. But anti-immigration sentiment and xenophobia is a growing problem all over the world right now, and Latin America is no exception. It’s a terrible pattern where immigrant populations who have to move to new countries face resistance and hostility, for different reasons. In the 80s, the situation between Peru and Venezuela was reversed. It was Peru’s “Lost Decade,” of economic crisis and conflict with the country’s guerrilla group Shining Path, and many of the Peruvians who went to Venezuela did not receive a warm welcome. And unfortunately right now, newcomers like Raian and his family are also facing a hostile reception as new residents in Peru. One study found that a quarter of Venezuelan kids in Peru aren’t in school, some of them because administrators just refused to enroll them. One of the moms at practice — Luismary — told me that one time at school, a kid went up to her son — who was only 5 years old…
Woman 1: Un niño si le dijo ah, tú eres venezolano, tu, tu mamá y tu papá fuman marihuana.
ANTHONY NARRATION: …and said, “oh you’re Venezuelan? so your parents must smoke marijuana then.”
Woman 1: Y mi hijo me llega diciendo eso a la casa. Mami, ¿qué es la marihuana? Con cinco años porque tenía cinco años.
ANTHONY NARRATION: There are so many Venezeulans like Raian in Peru and other Latin American countries: they were high earning professionals like insurance salesmen, accountants, or doctors at home. And in their new countries they’re working in restaurants or as cleaners. On top of all the practical challenges of moving to a new country, they deal with relentless ridicule at work and school, on TV and social media. At her job, Luismary says customers will complain to her boss that they hired her.
Woman 1: Y no me parece justo que usted haga esto. Ay, que libros. Reclamaciones que no sé qué se fueron que a quejar con mi jefe, pero ya.
ANTHONY NARRATION: Just the day before I went to practice, Venezuela’s national soccer team came to play Peru’s in Lima. The Peruvian authorities set up to check the immigration status of any Venezuelan fans who tried to enter the stadium. But at this field, there’s none of that.
[OPTIMISTIC MUSIC BEGINS]
Los Astros practice gives the kids, parents, and coaches a break from the challenges of being a migrant. And it makes them all feel more at home.
Christian: Gracias al béisbol. Te sientes más en casa aquí? (Thanks to baseball. Do you feel more at home here?)
Franklin Lopez: Sí, porque se hace lo que es lo que nos gusta. ¿Me entiendes? (Yes, because we do what we love. You understand?)
[OPTIMISTIC MUSIC ENDS]
ANTHONY NARRATION: But Los Astros isn’t a social project, or a mere distraction from the families’ difficult lives. They have fun, that’s for sure. But they also have a serious mission. They want their young players to make it to the big leagues. Not only would it be a dream come true, it could be a way out of poverty for the whole family.
Franklin Lopez: Si de verdad es lo que quieren para su futuro, plantearlo como un trabajo, La manera en cómo se van a sustentar su familia. (If this is truly what they want for their future, approach it as a job, the way in which they will support their family.)
ANTHONY NARRATION: Franklin said the kids “compete, not just participate.” The club has connections to scouts in Venezuela that work for MLB teams. When their most promising players get older, they “graduate” from Los Astros, and they send them back to Venezuela to look for MLB opportunities.
Franklin Lopez: Ya hay equipos interesados. Han mostrado su talento y han mostrado interés las organizaciones hacia ellos. (There are already teams interested….they have showcased their talent, and organizations have shown interest in them.)
ANTHONY NARRATION: One of their kids who went back just signed a deal with an Austrian baseball team. Not quite the MLB but it’s a step in that direction — and he’s getting paid to play baseball. He might not have had that opportunity if not for Los Astros.
Manny: I think the scouts are always going to be where there’s, where there’s baseball and where there’s potential.
ANTHONY NARRATION: That’s Manny Padron, an MLB scout for the Miami Marlins. He said scouts don’t normally make it to places like Peru where Venezuelans are just starting up baseball teams. But he expects they’ll start as baseball grows there.
Manny: And if, you know, a year or two from now, it’s, it’s Peru, it’s Argentina, like scouts will be there, you know, like, that’s the reality. Especially nowadays, teams are always trying to find that edge.
ANTHONY NARRATION: Manny was looking for talent in Venezuela in the mid-2010s for the Red Sox. And things were starting to get so bad there, a lot of teams pulled their scouts out.
Manny: There were only, maybe 50 percent of the teams were actually competing in Venezuela at the time. So I would I would guess that some guys, you know, lost their opportunities.
ANTHONY NARRATION: Good players were falling through the cracks. And Venezuelans are very good players.
[THOUGHTFUL MUSIC BEGINS]
There were 58 Venezuelan players on MLB rosters on Opening Day this March. Over 200 young Venezeulans have signed MLB deals already this year alone. 17-year-old Jose Perdomo recently signed one with the Atlanta Braves for $5 million. $5 million or even a small fraction of it is an astounding sum in a country with such a beleaguered economy, where the minimum wage has dipped to as low as $1 a month. This is a big reason why parents like Raian will move their whole working life to help their kid make it in baseball. And there are some big success stories to point to.
[ARCHIVAL COMMENTATOR ANNOUNCING WILMER FLORES PLAY]
Wilmer Flores: I think on every inning now, I just look up and watch 50,000 people just cheering for you, it was unreal.
[ARCHIVAL COMMENTATOR CONTINUING]
[THOUGHTFUL MUSIC ENDS]
ANTHONY NARRATION: This is Wilmer Flores of the San Francisco Giants. He made it all the way from hitting home runs in his hometown of Valencia, Venezuela to playing in the World Series. With his $750,000 signing bonus at age 16, he bought his Mom a Hyundai Sonata.
Wilmer Flores: It definitely helps. Especially, uh, on our countries that, you know, a lot of things that we go through, uh, it definitely helps.
ANTHONY NARRATION: But Wilmer was once a little kid in Venezuela who loved baseball. I told him about the kids in Lima, and he could imagine how painful it must have been for them to lose their sport — and their dream — for years.
Wilmer Flores: It’s gotta be tough for those kids. I mean, I just wish that, you know, they, they start something big over there because I think if you’re Venezuelan, you’re gonna have baseball in your blood anywhere you go. Yeah.
ANTHONY NARRATION: I played youth sports my whole childhood. And I – like pretty much every kid that plays – had the dream to do it professionally, however unlikely it was. But the parents and coaches were much more reserved. The goals they talk about are to have fun, build character — maybe get a scholarship to college if they’re being ambitious. I know it’s just realistic and completely logical. But honestly that always kind of frustrated me as a kid. Like why can’t you dream with me?
[STEEL DRUM BASED MUSIC BEGINS]
Los Astros are different. They are all working toward that goal and they believe it will happen. When you ask any of them if they think one or more of them will make it to the MLB, they don’t even let you finish the question.
Anthony: ¿Los niños de este equipo puedan ir a jugar en estados unidos?
Woman 1: Sí. Sí, Totalmente.
Anthony: ¿Piensas que es posible?
Woman 2: Sí.
Woman 1: Claro.
Christian: Y ustedes van, van a ir también cuando…
Group: Si.
Kid: Con el favor de Dios, si.
ANTHONY NARRATION: The kids are getting ready for a big game in a few days. They have them almost every weekend.
Kid: Cada sábado jugamos.
Christian: Every Saturday they play. A tournament has just started.
ANTHONY NARRATION: Now there are enough baseball teams in Peru to do tournaments. Thanks to the influx of Venezuelan migrants, Lima has arepa restaurants everywhere, and now baseball diamonds. Los Astros even has a Peruvian player, with two Peruvian parents. And, Coach Frank said, that player has Asperger’s Syndrome, which can make him withdrawn. But he’s found a home in the team too.
Franklin Lopez: Fue la realidad. Un niño muy centrado, un niño muy capaz, muy activo. Y está perfectamente bien y juega y se mantiene activo con nosotros.
ANTHONY NARRATION: He fits right in. And maybe with time, more Peruvians will pick up baseball and this Venezuelan game and culture and people won’t seem so weird in Lima anymore. They’ll all fit in.
[STEEL DRUM BASED MUSIC ENDS]
ANTHONY NARRATION: I talked with Rordigo about the highlights of his young baseball career and he told me about a recent tournament championship game, against another team of Venezuelan kids called The Angels, where he made a diving catch in center field.
Rodrigo Colmenares: Hubo una jugada que estaba en el center field, una una pelota que iba a picar y me deslicé y la agarré. (In the final there was a play where I was in center field, a ball that was going to bounce, and I slid and caught it.)
ANTHONY NARRATION: His dad said that in another tournament — a big one with teams that traveled from all over the region — they were playing against a team from Ecuador. The game was tied, it was the last inning, the bases were loaded, and there were 2 outs. Rodrigo up to bat. It was the same situation Raian was in almost 14 years earlier.
[SOUND OF HEARTBEAT]
And just like his dad…
[CRACK OF BASEBALL BAT]
…little Rodrigo hit a double.
[CROWD FANFARE]
[PROPULSIVE MUSIC BEGINS]
Raian Colmenares: Impulsó la carrera para para ganar ecuador. (He drove in the winning run against Ecuador)
ANTHONY NARRATION: A walk off double, and the team rushed onto the field to celebrate. After the game, Rodrigo asked his dad, “what was your best moment as a player?”
Raian Colmenares: Y le dijese porque él también le pasó lo mismo. (I told him because he also experienced the same thing.)
ANTHONY NARRATION: He told him he did the same — a game winning double. And now Rodrigo knew how it felt.
[PROPULSIVE MUSIC ENDS]
ANTHONY NARRATION: I asked Wilmer Flores from the Giants to give me a message I could send back to the kids, coaches, and parents of Los Astros.
Wilmer Flores: Si, si de verdad quiere seguir jugando, nunca pierda la esperanza. No importa donde esté, quieres seguir jugando, busca la manera, y si tiene el corazón pa, seguir jugando va a jugar.
ANTHONY NARRATION: ” If you really want to continue playing, never lose hope,” he said. “No matter where you are….find a way, look for help. And if you have the heart to play, you will continue playing.”
[INTROSPECTIVE MUSIC BEGINS]
Wilmer’s message really applies to anyone in a dark place who’s lost their thing, their passion, or their hope. Even when it feels like the world’s taken it away from you, you can find a way to get it back, somehow. One thing that Rodrigo’s mom Rosemary told me was that before they found the team, not only did they not have an activity to do or as many friends or the comfort of their culture — they didn’t have possibility.
Now…they do.
Anthony: ¿Quieres jugar en la liga grande en Estados Unidos?
Rodrigo: Sí.
ANTHONY NARRATION: You want to play in the big leagues in the US? I asked him
Anthony: ¿Crees que es posible?
ANTHONY NARRATION: Do you think it’s possible?
Rodrigo Colmenares: Sí, yo digo que si es posible.
ANTHONY NARRATION: “Yes”, he said, “I say it’s possible”.
Anthony: Tiempo por practicar. Gracias.
Kids: Gracias a ustedes. Ciao. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Anthony: Thank you.
LIZ NARRATION: Before we go, an addendum. Just as we were finishing up this story, I got a WhatsApp message from Coach Franklin. Jhosneyker Colina – one of Los Astros’ players who recently went back to Venezuela to try out for scouts – just got a deal with the New York Yankees. He’s a 15 year old, right handed pitcher who learned to throw 90 mph with his coaches in the dirt in Lima. On YouTube they posted a slideshow with him wearing his Los Astros jersey in one pic, and his new official Yankees gear in the next. In the words of Brad Pitt in the film Moneyball
MONEYBALL CLIP: How can you not be romantic about baseball?
[INTROSPECTIVE MUSIC ENDS]
[THEME MUSIC BEGINS]
LIZ NARRATION: This episode was produced and narrated by Anthony Wallace with editing by Mark Pagán and Charlie Garcia. Audio engineering and scoring by Anthony Wallace. Additional audio engineering and mixing by Charlie Garcia. And I’m your host, Liz Rebecca Alarcón.
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That’s it for this week. Thanks for joining me, Pulso Fam. We’ll be back next week, in Confianza.
