[外電] The Story Of My Life(1980-88)

看板Rangers作者YokoKanno (YokoKanno)時間7年前 (2017/05/04 22:14)推噓3(3推 0噓 1→)

留言4則, 4人參與討論串1/1

1980 Even before I started catching, my favorite player growing up was Johnny Bench. For some reason those Big Red Machine teams were always on TV in Puerto Rico. And as a kid, I loved to watch Bench play. He did everything well, and he wasn’ t all that big. So watching him gave me some hope that I might have a shot. Once I became a catcher, it kind of all made sense why I had liked him so much as a little kid. 1980 在我開始蹲捕之前，我的偶像是Johnny Bench(*1)，原因是因為波多黎各的電視常常播著大紅機器(*2)的比賽。當我還是個孩子的時候我超愛看Bench的比賽，他並不是那麼的強壯可是他每一件事情都做得棒極了！看著他也帶給我一個我也可以打出一番成就的希望，所以為什麼我成為捕手之後會像個小孩子一樣熱愛他也是有道理的。 1985 When I was 13, my dad moved me from my hometown to the San Juan Metroplex so I could train at the Raiders Baseball Academy. That’s where all the scouts were. I was on a traveling team, and we played all over the island. We also played some games in the States against American Legion teams. We had a really good team back then. We were very complete — good pitching, good offense, good defense. We’d usually win all those tournaments. 1983 當我十三歲的時候，我爸爸為了讓我可以在Raiders 棒球學校練習就帶著我離開家鄉搬到 San Juan Metroplex。那裏到處都是球探，因為球隊沒有固定主場，我們在島上到處跟其他球隊打球，我們也在美國本土跟一些美國地區的球隊比賽，我們真的是一隻好隊伍，非常的完整－好的投手、好的進攻，好的防守，我們真的常常贏下不少比賽。 1988 Funny story about the day that I signed with the Rangers. I was 16 at the time, and there was a big Prospects Showcase for a bunch of major league teams in San Juan. Sandy Johnson was scouting for the Rangers then, and he was there with Omar Minaya and Manny Batista, who were also scouts with Texas. Luis Rosa, the owner of the baseball academy, had three or four catchers who he was showcasing. The problem for me was that I was last on Luis’s list — fourth in line. Literally. He was focused more on a few other catchers at the time. But Sandy saw me warming up in the outfield — just throwing back and forth — and he asked about me. He told Luis that he wanted to see me before the other catchers there. So I started out as last in the group, but they jumped me to first. And after my first throw down to second base, like as soon as it got to the bag, Sandy turned to Omar and said: “Stop him. I don’t need to see another throw. Don’t let him throw down to second again. Go tell Luis that I want this kid.” He knew there were scouts from other teams there, and he wanted to get to me first. So I went out to the parking lot and signed a contract on the trunk of a car, and that was that. 1988 在我跟遊騎兵簽約的那一天有一個有趣的故事，那時我十六歲，在San Juan有一個大型的大聯盟新秀測試會，Sandy Johnson是當時遊騎兵的球探，跟他一同的還有Omar Minaya（*3）以及Manny Batista,他們當時也是德州的球探，棒球學校的老闆Luis Rosa想要展示一下他旗下的三或四個捕手給他們瞧瞧，但有個問題是···我在Luis的名單裡面是排名第四。那個時候他確實把焦點都放在其他的捕手身上，但Minaya一看到我在外野熱身的樣子－僅僅是單純的傳接球，就開始問起我來，他告訴Luis在看其他捕手之前想先看看我，所以本來是在最後的我，突然順位就跳到第一了，在我第一次快速地把球傳到二壘的時候，Sandy轉過去對Omar說：「叫他停了，我不需要看其他人傳球了，不要再讓他傳球到二壘一次，告訴Luis 他就是我想要的那傢伙！」他知道其他隊的球探也在場，所以想要第一個拿下我，所以我就走到球場外的拖車然後簽下了合約，這就是當時的故事。 *1:Jhonny Bench:名人堂成員,1967-1983紅人隊的主戰捕手，拿過新人王以及兩次MVP 連續十二年入選明星賽，拿下十座金手套 *2:大紅機器:辛辛那提紅人隊的暱稱，1970-1976年間以強大的火力稱霸國家聯盟並拿下兩次世界大賽冠軍 *3:Omar Minaya:曾任遊騎兵球探，期間曾簽下Sammy Sosa以及Juan Gonzalez等知名選手之後先後擔任大都會以及博覽會的GM -- Minaya真的很厲害，球探功力真的很厲害，即使GM手腕不好但是眼光很精準 -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc), 來自: 59.115.26.45 ※ 文章網址: https://www.ptt.cc/bbs/Rangers/M.1493907295.A.631.html