Al's Big Red Machine

When I suit up for the Cincinnati Reds Fantasy Camp in January, I will proudly wear the number "14" in honor of  Pete Rose, one of the game's most inspirational players and the all-time leader in hits with 4,256. "Mr. Hustle" always gave it 100%. A fierce competitor, Rose played baseball with a tremendous passion and never quit hustling regardless of the score in a game. For me, like the famous line in the Disney movie "Remember The Titans" says, "you're Hall of Fame in my book." Coincidentally, one of Rose's most memorable career moments came on April 29 (my birthday), when in 1978 for the only time in his career he hit three home runs in the same game. I celebrated a 60th April 29 yesterday and that milestone was one of the primary drivers in my registering for the Reds Fantasy Camp, so I'm honored to be wearing "14".   

As a tween and teenager when I wasn't chasing pretty girls, you could be sure to find me on a baseball field or in a batting cage. I could play, watch my friends play on their teams and practice baseball for hours. You see me and my best friend Jorge Martinez dreamed of playing in the Big Leagues one day. We spent countless hours perfecting our swings at the batting cages at Carol City High School, breaking only to take some sips of water from a nearby water fountain. And when our hands started blistering, we'd sit down on the clay floor and fantasize about hitting back to back on the Big Red Machine one day. For most of our varsity years, we played on rival neighborhood high school teams. He, on the juggernaut Carol City Chiefs, loaded with talent and heritage and I on the upstart, new American High Patriots. While on the field we were fierce competitors, off the diamond, we were the best of the best friends. The kind of friends that at 14, knew we would be the godfathers of e

The "Big Red Machine" of the 1970s was baseball royalty for me. So when my childhood neighbor, whom I admired and bragged about his baseball prowess, was drafted out of high school in 1978 by the Reds, my connection to the iconic franchise grew stronger. Nick Esasky was the talk of Carol Park, a small but exciting ballpark in Carol City in the northern area of Miami Dade County. I hung out a lot at Carol Park as a teen, as it was the epicenter of youth baseball in Carol City, whose high school Chiefs baseball team, also produced major league players Randy Bush, Danny Tartabull and Otis Green. The park had a very tall chainlink fence in left field to protect homes from being pelted with errantly-thrown baseballs. There were only a few 15-year-olds in the Little League program who could boast hitting long balls against that towering Fenway Park-like fence. And that's why Nick, a manchild with Big League prowess, was a Carol Park legend for me and many of my Sandlot buddie