American tourists enjoy traveling to Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South American countries for fun in the sun vacations.
In contrast, young athletes from those southerly nations come to the United States to make a living playing professional baseball.
The Richmond Flying Squirrels, with a strong Latino flavor, are a microcosm of a larger picture. Baseball in America is becoming more and more worldly. You’ll hear plenty of Spanish spoken around the batting cages.
As of this week, the Flying Squirrels had 10 Latin Americans on the roster. They’re under the wing of manager José Alguacil, who hails from Venezuela.
An early season headliner has been catcher-first baseman Andrés Angulo from Cali, Colombia. Angulo’s grand slam May 18 led Richmond to a 6-5 win over the Bowie Baysox at The Diamond.
Through 20 games, Angulo posted a team-leading .318 average.
From a nation most known for soccer, a trickle of Colombians has been reaching baseball’s big leagues for decades.
Among the Colombian big league stand-outs was shortstop Édgar Rentería, a five-time All-Star. Rentería helped the Florida Marlins to the World Series title in 1997 and the San Francisco Giants in 2010.
Eight Colombians, including New York Yankees third baseman Gio Urshela, are on big-league rosters to start this season.
Latino players with the Richmond Flying Squirrels come from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Venezuela.
From the Dominican Republic: Pitchers Gerson Garabito, Melvin Adon and Raffi Vizcaíno and outfielders Sandro Fabian and Andy Sugilio.
From Puerto Rico: Outfielder Heliot Ramos and catcher Bryan Torres.
From Venezuela: pitchers Norwith Gudino and Luis Amaya.
From Colombia: Angulo.
For good measure, pitcher Rico Garcia is a Pacific Islander from Honolulu and outfielder Francisco Tostado is from Camarillo, Calif., of Mexican ancestry.
It’s not like this Latino influence came overnight. In 1964, the Richmond Virginians, a New York Yankees farm club, were managed by Cuban Preston Gómez.
A standout that year was second baseman Horace Clarke from the Virgin Islands. Clarke went on to a long successful career with the Yankees.
Perhaps the most popular Richmond player of all time was Manuel “Chico” Ruiz. The second baseman played all or parts of 12 straight seasons with the Richmond Braves, from 1973 through 1984.
Back to the present-
Today’s players of color in Richmond also include four African-Americans: outfielder Jacob Heyward of McDonough, Ga., and pitchers Jay Jackson of Greenville, S.C., Ronnie Williams of Hialeah, Fla., and Joey “Rocky” Marciano of Carbondale, Ill.
The Diamond will be open to full capacity for the next homestand beginning Tuesday, June 1. The first two homestands were played with about 30 percent to 35 percent capacity.
The upcoming 12-game homestand will be June 1 through 6 against the Altoona Curve of Pennsylvania and June 8 through 12 against the Harrisburg Senators, also of Pennsylvania.
Altoona is the AA Northeast League affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates, while Harrisburg is a Washington Nationals farm club.
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May 28, 2021 at 05:00AM
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Richmond Flying Squirrels start season with strong Latino flavor - Richmond Free Press
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