THE OTHER SIDE OF LIFE
Trip to Guatemala City provides humbling jolt of harsh reality to Jays pitcher Biagini
Joe Biagini usually can’t go 30 seconds without saying something zany or outrageous.
It’s uncanny really. Even when he’s on a serious topic, the big right-hander always has to toss in a bizarre quip or two. Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said early in training camp he is unsure if he’s ever had a completely serious discussion with Biagini, even on the mound.
When he first arrived at spring training as a Rule 5 free agent two years ago, a lot of people thought Biagini’s zaniness was a put-on. It’s clearly not. He can’t help himself.
But there is one topic Biagini doesn’t joke about — how he spent some of his time during the off-season.
The native of Redwood City, Calif., joined a spiritual-based organization called Unlimited Potential International on a trip to the poverty-stricken central American country of Guatemala, a nation plagued with high rates of crime, largely because of illegal drug activity.
UPI’s mission is to reach, teach, and train baseball players for the purpose of sending them out into the world to spread the word of Jesus and to show people mired in poverty and hopelessness that there are people out there who care and want to help. People like Joe Biagini. “I contend I was kind of tricked into going on this trip, I was kind of guilt-tripped into going by Terry Evans, who is the chaplain for the Braves, and he led us in a kind of a small group — Bible study, discipleship kind of group thing,” said Biagini, with a smile. “He led this group and they had gone down to Guatemala City every year for a bunch of years through UPI.
“Basically, what we do is go down there and put on these baseball camps for the kids and we also get to have some pretty heavy experiences.
“We did this church group thing on the street with a bunch of kids that are homeless on the streets of Guatemala City. Their names are basically wherever they live. And where they live is like behind a 7-11 ... or whatever the Guatemala version of a 7-11 is. They’re street kids. So their names would be like, ‘The 7-11 Kid’ or whatever 7-11 is in Spanish. And they had this drug, this glue, that they would sniff and it would not make them feel hungry or cold. So, we got to go and sit with them and spend some time with them and give them some resources and stuff.
“We also got to play softball and soccer and stuff with them,” he added. “These kids have been through some of the most horrible experiences you can imagine and they were like fine kids.”
Biagini said his experiences in Guatemala went from intense to almost unworldly. Certainly very sad.
“We got to go to this safe house for girls who had been sexually trafficked. I think one girl was like 10 years old and she was pregnant,” he said. “It’s that bad. Some of them, their families would just sell them off just to get food or money. So we got to go there and it was a pretty incredible experience.”
The shelter for girls is sponsored by Kids Alive International. Biagini was keen to ask that all the organizations he dealt with in Guatemala get a mention in this article. He’d like for them to get some publicity.
“And then we went to like the city dump and we saw this huge (mountain) of trash that went on for miles and you could look down into it and people were scavenging for stuff. That’s their income,” he said.
“And then on another part of the trip we went to this resort area in Guatemala. It was like a city that was established by the Spanish and it became a resort. And just to see the discrepancy of the wealth. It was pretty well a full spectrum of experiences.”
Reaching out is not something new to Biagini, who doesn’t wear his Christian faith on his sleeve, rather he attempts to live it on a daily basis.
“In high school (King ’s Academy in Sunnyvale, Calif.), we’d go down every year to Mexico and build houses for people,” he said. “We did that for four years. It was a pretty similar experience, but not maybe quite as (intense) as Guatemala.”
Biagini is a clubhouse joker, but there is no malice in his goofiness. He said the trip to Guatemala afforded him a chance to give and to get something back, to gain a sense of perspective.
He said he never takes for granted that he is — as he describes himself — one of the luckiest people in the
world. “I could have easily been born a street kid in Guatemala City. ‘To whom much is given, much will be required,’ ” said Biagini, referencing Luke 12:48.
“I would argue that I’ve had the easiest life of almost anybody,” he said. “I’m not going to get too deep into the spiritual stuff, but there’s got to be a reason why I’m here and it can’t just be to make money and try to be famous and successful. I’m here for a reason and I wouldn’t be complete (if it was just to play baseball and make money). It can’t be, ‘Oh, I’m going to buy myself a nice car and live the rest of my life spending on things for myself.’ That just never gets there for me. I don’t think it does for anybody.
“There is 100 per cent a purpose why I’m here,” Biagini continued. “It’s a purpose of having an impact on my teammates and using a platform to share my perspectives on things. I’ve learned and continue to learn, try to bless people with things that I’ve been blessed with.
“If you hold on to what you have too tightly and nobody else gets it, you’re going to crush it in your hand. You’ve got to hold it loosely because then it will be good for you and for someone else,” Biagini said of the material life people get wrapped up in. “And that’s the whole point. That’s the responsibility that I feel.” There’s no joke in any of that. Biagini said perhaps the
most profound part of meeting and talking to the kids in Guatemala was, everywhere they went, the people there were anxious to give something back.
“They wanted to share what little they had,” said Biagini, stopping for a brief second to collect himself. “Their lives were overwhelming. I don’t like to manufacture feelings if they’re not legitimate, but I could definitely see how hopeless they felt and how I would feel in that situation.”
Biagini’s mood brightened when telling the story of how he almost got arrested at customs entering Guatemala with a load of clothes and equipment donated by New Balance.
“They thought I was selling it illegally,” he said. “I had to convince them that I was donating this stuff.”
It’s pretty weird talking to Biagini for more than a half hour without the big lug joking around or going off on some bizarre tangent to get a laugh, though near the end of the conversation, he couldn’t help himself.
When asked why it was important for him to share his story of his trip to Guatemala, Biagini replied: “I do it because I want to look cool and get articles written about me.”
Of course, that isn’t true. Biagini said he would like to make trips with Unlimited Potential International on a regular basis.
“You see these kids, you meet them, you hear their stories and you smell the drugs coming off of them,” Biagini said. “And you realize what needs saving is not necessarily worldly goods and things. What needs saving is your spirit.”
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There is 100 per cent a purpose why I’m here. It’s a purpose of having an impact on my teammates and using a platform to share my perspectives on things.