BASEBALL HALL FINAL STOP ON VLAD’S AMAZING JOURNEY
Humble beginnings in Dominican Republic helped shape career of former Expos star
Vladimir Guerrero’s journey to the Baseball Hall of Fame started as a 17-year-old on the back of a motorbike in the Dominican Republic and ended with his induction speech here on Sunday afternoon.
Victor Franco, Guerrero’s coach and friend, drove the motorbike from his hometown of Don Gregorio to the Expos Academy in Mendoza to attend a tryout camp. Guerrero was already dealing with tightness in his left leg at the time and in his first at-bat hit a ground ball to the left side of the infield, pulling a muscle in his leg while running to first base.
It took about a month for the injury to heal, but Expos scout Fred Ferreira had already seen enough from Guerrero — including his cannon of an arm during an outfield throwing session — for the team to sign him to a US$2,200 contract once his leg healed.
That was a lot of money to Guerrero at the time. As Michael Farber reported in his outstanding TSN Original documentary on Guerrero titled Swing Away, Guerrero and his four siblings grew up in a tiny house in the Dominican Republic with three brothers — Vladimir, Wilton and Eleazar — sleeping in the same bed that was broken in the middle. Guerrero’s father was absent in his life and his mother left for Venezuela when he was five to work as a cook and a maid, sending money back home to support her children, who worked on their grandparents’ farm and lived with their aunt.
Baseball was everything to Guerrero, who quit school in Grade 5. It was his only way out of the Dominican and he went on to earn more than US$125 million during his Hall of Fame career that started with the Expos and ended with him wearing a Los Angeles Angels cap in Cooperstown. While Guerrero left the Dominican, it never left him. He now lives in a compound he built in Don Gregorio on the fields he used to work. Guerrero told Farber that without baseball his life “wouldn’t be anything ” and he would have ended up growing onions in the Dominican.
Guerrero was always a man of few words — never learning to speak English despite 16 years in the majors — and his induction speech was no different.
“When I was a player, I always mentioned that I wanted my bat to do the talking,” Guerrero said in Spanish with Angels broadcaster José Mota as his translator. “But now that I’m not playing, I’m very happy to be standing here and talking to you.”
He didn’t talk very long. Guerrero’s entire speech — including translation — lasted only three minutes, which has to be a Hall of Fame record.
The speech was mainly directed at the thousands of Dominican fans in attendance — who greatly outnumbered those wearing Expos or Angels caps — cheering wildly and waving their national flag. Guerrero becomes only the third Dominican inducted into the Hall of Fame after pitchers Juan Marichal and Pedro Martinez, another former Expo.
Guerrero did thank Montreal, the Expos and the Angels, but had a special message to those back in the Dominican Republic who were celebrating their Father’s Day on Sunday. Guerrero received an early Father’s Day gift on Saturday when his son, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., was promoted from Double-A to Triple-A by the Toronto Blue Jays. The 19-yearold, who hit .402 with 14 homers and 60 RBIs in 61 games with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, will join the Buffalo Bisons on Tuesday after spending the weekend in Cooperstown with his father.
When Guerrero met with the media Saturday, he wanted to clear up a few stories that have been told over the years about the Expos tryout camp he attended that he says aren’t true.
“I was not the last one invited (to the camp), so that’s not a true story,” he said through Mota. “The other thing is that what happened is I was the last one to throw from the outfield. They knew I had the issue with the leg, but I was not the last person invited to the training camp. The other issue that I want to clarify is the story about me wearing the same shoe — like two left shoes — is not right, either. It’s not a true story. I was the last one to throw, but not the last one invited into the tryout. There are a few things that came out about that tryout that are not true and I’m glad I can at least clarify those. I was in the camp when everybody showed up at the right time.”
But it is true he arrived at the camp on the back of a motorbike.
“It was pretty much a custom for anybody that wanted to play and get into Mendoza for the Expos camp, you had to take one of those motorcycle taxis,” he said.
“It still goes on today. I don’t know where (that bike) is now, but certainly it’s one of those big memories that I’ll have forever.”
It’s also a great Hall of Fame story.