Elgin’s Hometown Heroes
Nov. 11, 2010
The turns in life are why you stay on the road. No exit.
Just bear down and dream about the next stop. Something better is waiting for you.
Sometimes it is someone.
That’s what World Series MVP Edgar Renteria did. He’s in my Midwest League book “Cougars, Snappers and Loons (Oh My!) ” reminiscing about his days with the Kane County Cougars. Renteria was just 17 years old in 1993 when he was the Cougars starting shortstop. He was homesick for his native Colombia.
His host family Brian and Jane Mooberry of west suburban Elgin, Ill. met Renteria when he was fidgeting in the Cougars front office in Geneva. The team was trying to prevent him from returning to Colombia. He had enough money for a one-way ticket out of Chicago. Renteria was resistant to learning English. He hated American food. Once the Mooberrys adopted Renteria they cooked red beans and rice, which he ate daily.
When I talked to Renteria at the end of his 2008 season with the Detroit Tigers, he was slow to elaborate on baseball. He perked up when I mentioned the Mooberrys. “I appreciate so much what they did for me,” he said with a warm smile in the Tigers clubhouse. “I will never forget it. They tried to teach me English. They cooked food for me so I could stay happy.
They didn’t know me and didn’t know where I came from, yet they trusted me.”
Beautiful.
Jane has been an English as Second Language instructor at Elgin Community College. She told me, “Everybody else on that team was 21 and older and here was Edgar, who they called ‘The Baby.’ Someday I am going to ask him if he thinks this is the truth: I really believe him being in this house created a baseball career. It would have been over had he not gotten into a nurturing environment.”
And here is how it has played out:
* Renteria is a 15-year-major league veteran has appeared in the World Series with Florida (who were the Cougars parent team), St. Louis and this year’s San Francisco Giants, for which he was named series MVP.
* Earlier this week he was welcomed back to his hometown of Barranquilla, Colombia. Parades and parties were planned for Renteria, who already was a national hero in Colombia. He declined and said all available and future money go toward helping the estimated 900,000 people who have been left homeless from recent floods in Barranquilla, an industrial port city in northern Colombia.
* Renteria is co-founder of the Colombian Professional Baseball League. His dream is to have Colombia particpate in the annual Caribbean Series (Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Venezuela). The league is owned by Team Renteria, a charity group run by the shortstop and members of his family. Team Renteria also operates a youth baseball academy in Barranquilla.
During a July conversation in Milwaukee Renteria told me, “When you see somebody play in the big leagues you want to be that guy. I wanted to be like Jackie Guiterrez (the strong-armed shortstop from Cartagena, Colombia who played for Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia between 1983-88). That was my hero, that was my vision.”
Professional baseball has been played in Colombia since 1948. The eras are divided between 1948-58, 1979-88 and from 1993 when Renteria and his brother Edinson resurrected the league. Edinson, a former infielder in the Houston and Florida organizations (1985-94) is league president.
Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson played for the Barranquilla Vanytor team in 1957. His future Baltimore Orioles teammate Frank Robinson and future San Fransciso Giant
Willie McCovey played in Colombia during the late 1950s.
“Colombia is a big country, but they’ve only played baseball on the coast,” Edgar said.
“Its hot on the coast. Around (cooler) Bogota’ they like to play soccer. We like to play baseball more. I go back every winter and see how the Colombian players progress.”
And when Renteria hits the road, he is always taking Elgin, Ill. with him.
Yuya Rodriguez, a Colombian minor league legend who made it to the Class AAA level in the Giants system in the 1950s. His given name was Innocent Rodriguez.
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