Fifteen years ago, Luisa and I volunteered to become a Host Family for the Latin American team playing in the Big League World Series in Easley, SC. Little did we know what that would entail, how hard that was, but how transformative it would be for us. Over the years we have laughed and cried while we celebrated the ups and downs of what the teams experience during this tournament.
The hook for me, was when the tournament director at the time mentioned that teams from Puerto Rico had been here and would come to play in this tournament. Our first team was from Maracaibo, Venezuela in 2005. As a host family we would become surrogate parents for a team of ~16 players and 3 coaches. We immediately were called "Los Padrinos", as in Godparents, by the team. That name stuck and was indicative of the role we believe we had for the team. Someone who would look out for the players, in the event the parents were not around.
Because I travel a lot, I know what it is like to go to a town you don't know, try to get around and speak in a language you don't fully comprehend or speak and to miss the food you have eaten all of your life...etc. Now imagine that as a teenager.
When we were getting ready to pick up the team at the airport, we were told that the team was lost and nobody knew where they were. For two days, we waited till we finally got the news that half of the team had traveled from Maracaibo, to San Juan, to Miami, to Dallas, to Greenville and the other team was on a totally different flight schedule. The team arrived in Greenville around midnight, exhausted and hungry and the first thing they asked was had their equipment arrived. It had not.
We took the team to the university dorms they were staying at and had them get to bed. We got home at 3:30AM that night and I said to myself, what the heck did we get ourselves into? I was still trying to work during that time and went to work in the morning, then to the airport to pick up their "stuff" and then head to the university for a coaches meeting at 1PM.
Because I am fluent in spanish, I also had the added benefit of being in the dugout, with the team, as a translator for the team. I would run out with the manager for every player change or when there was an injured player on the field to make sure I did my part. I was like a kid in the candy store reliving my youth as a baseball player. Luisa made arrangements for meals every night, at our expense, beyond the meals provided by the tournament, because these were some hungry athletes burning calories like there is no tomorrow. If a player did get injured, Luisa would be responsible for running off with that player to the hospital or physical therapist appointment. Over these years, there were many of those, including one time when one of our ball players got so dehydrated in the final championship game that he almost didn't make his return flight back to Puerto Rico.
Throughout our time volunteering in this wonderful tournament with the hundreds of other people that do so, we have worked with and have been a part of teams from Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and recently Curacao. We have also helped other teams from Panama representing Latin America while we were focused on our own Caribbean team. The tournament changed from the Big League World Series to the Senior League World Series when Little League eliminated that upper bracket but the volunteering roles stayed the same.
As a Puerto Rican, with a Cuban wife, baseball is in our blood. It is OUR past time and OUR sport. We both have lots of famous players we are fond of, but to me and most Puerto Ricans, there is no bigger admiration than for Roberto Clemente. He was known for what he did both on the field and off of the field. Clemente once said something to the effect, "If you have an opportunity to make a difference in this world and you don't, then you are wasting your time on this earth".
That's exactly how Luisa and I approached this tournament. Every team we hosted can attest to my "sermon" before the tournament, when I had my own meeting with them and promised to give it all we got for them for these 10 days. At the end of the tournament, right before they departed on the bus to the airport or boarded their plane, I would ask them if this was the best week of their lives and then followed up with "Remember everything we have done for you this week. Make sure that when you get to your goal or grow up to be an adult, you do the same as we have for those that follow you. In the end, that is how we make this world a better place for all of us".
In a 2007, a study came out that said the average MLB career is just a bit over 5 years. We have been volunteering for 15. Throughout our entire time, the teams we have hosted, have been in the final championship game in 11 of those 15 years. Our team has gone on to win the tournament 5 out of those 15 times. We have had numerous players go on to get drafted professionally and some have even made it to the big stage.
We truly enjoy meeting some of them when they come back into town to play against the local Red Sox affiliate, the Greenville Drive. But the thing we absolutely adore, is the personal relationship we have made with the players, the coaches and the family members over all of these years.
Luisa and I continue to stay in touch with the hundreds of people from all of these countries, celebrating birthdays or just reaching out to see how they are doing. We worry about them just like we worry about other family members through the disastrous hurricanes to the violence and horrible conditions in their home countries.
Every year when the players leave, it feels like we are losing a part of our family. It is really painful, especially when you consider what some of these players will be going back home to, such as those from Venezuela or the Dominican Republic and even Puerto Rico which was hammered by Hurricane Maria shortly after the team was here. We have definitely shed our fair share of tears for everyone of our teams from all of the countries we have been with throughout these years. As Nolan Ryan once said: "Baseball life is a tough life on the family.".
The effort we have put into the tournament, along with that of all of the other truly amazing volunteers, is incredible. It is exhausting but extremely rewarding. So much so that we all come back every year to do it once again.
The past couple of years though, have been extremely difficult for Luisa and I due to the losses of our biggest fans and most dedicated baseball loving family members. We announced at the beginning of this year's tournament that this was our last year volunteering as a Host Family for the tournament. We will be taking some time to heal our hearts and souls before we begin our next adventure of giving back. We are not sure yet what that adventure will be but during this healing time we hope to visit our baseball friends in their home countries or wherever they are across the US in the major ballparks. We may even hit Williamsport one day in the future.
These 15 years have been some of the most fun and rewarding moments we have looked forward to every year. It was our thing we did as a family to give back, to keep in touch with our Caribbean and Latin American roots in an area where at times, we felt isolated. But most of all, to pay it forward and set an example of how to do so and have fun at it.
Para nuestra gente de todos los equipos, deseamos verlos un dia alla si Dios quiera. Gracias por las oportunidad de participar en estos momentos tan especiales con ustedes. Que Dios los bendiga siempre.
"Los Padrinos"
