Alonso went back to Cuba, batting cage
MESA, Ariz. — While Yonder Alonso spent the winter looking ahead, working hard to improve his swing for the upcoming season, he also got a chance to reconnect with his past.
Prompted by friend and former teammate Danny Valencia, the A’s first baseman took a last-second trip to his birthplace, Havana, to visit relatives he hadn’t seen since he was 10.
“It was awesome. I was at Danny’s house and he said, ‘Hey man, I’m going to Cuba on Friday. You want to go?’ ” Alonso said. “So my wife and I went online and got flights. I didn’t know it would be that easy. We didn’t tell anyone. We wanted it to be a surprise. We were there for four days and it was incredible.
“I remembered everything, and everything
is intact. Everything is still the same. It was hard, too, but there was happiness. There was joy. It kind of baptizes you. It cleans you, brings you back to life and reality, makes you appreciate the simplest things.”
Alonso, who turns 30 on April 8, saw his aunt, Diley, and numerous cousins. He visited the street where he had lived, Calle Concordia, and found the neighbors who helped babysit him, Paula and Emilla, now in their 80s.
“I went to the apartment I grew up in, and saw the two ladies who took care of me were there, and I surprised them,” he said. “I bought them a two-month supply of groceries and a flat-screen TV. They still had the same TV from when I was little — the one with an antenna where you turned the channel with a knob.”
Valencia, who is half Cuban, was moved by his friend’s reunions with family and friends. “It was really emotional,” he said. “It really makes you appreciate everything we have here.”
“I’ve never seen Danny cry, and he was crying,” Alonso said. “He got to see where I’m from and he definitely has a different perspective on me and what other players from Cuba go through.”
Amber Alonso also gained new insight into her husband after seeing his neighborhood. “She was taken aback,” he said. “For a whole month, she kept saying, ‘Now I understand why you are the way you are.’ ”
Trip to Cuba aside, there was little leisure time for Alonso over the winter. From the middle of October on, he focused on simplifying his swing. He spent hours working in the cage, and countless more hours watching video: of himself, of hitters he admires, of pitchers. He consulted with friends such his brother-in-law, Manny Machado, plus Robinson Cano, Eric Hosmer, Carlos Beltran and Valencia.
“I feel like I got educated through the process a lot more. I learned a lot about myself, my body,” he said. “It started from the feet all the way through the head.”
“I feel he’s going to have a huge season,” Valencia said. “He worked so hard.”
The results look sensational this spring. Along with playing his usual exemplary defense, Alonso is 16-for-43 (.372) and he is among the Cactus League leaders in homers (four) and walks (11).
He is approaching free agency for the first time at the end of the season, so a big season would be ideal for Alonso. But that impending free agency also could mean a productive Alonso might be traded at the deadline, especially considering that the A’s could slide Ryon Healy straight into a full-time firstbase role, or platoon Healy with Stephen Vogt and call up Bruce Maxwell to catch.
“That’s so far away, that’s the last thing on my mind,” Alonso said. “I’m just worrying about today. I’m worrying about tomorrow, about the first day of the season.”