The legacy of a jeweler on Latin American baseball
By César Augusto Márquez
Andrés Reiner took his own car and drove for more than 12 hours from Valencia, in the center of Venezuela, all the way to Tovar, a tiny pueblo in the Andes mountains where soccer and cycling are more popular than baseball in that region.
Although he went to scout a talented prospect who could pitch, play first base and the outfield, his employers, the Houston Astros didn’t give him permission to sign him. Because of the 1994 baseball lockout, the front office actually wasn’t authorized to approve funds to sign players.
The Astros, however, did allow Reiner to use his own funds to guarantee the player’s signature.
That young man signed with the Astros although he didn’t shine until he was with the Minnesota Twins, where he has earned a spot on the Twins’ Hall of Fame.
His name? Johan Santana.
That anecdote doesn’t just speak to Santana’s quality. It also shows the value, dedication and work ethic of the man who discovered him and chased talent with persistence until he accomplished his goal. It’s no coincidence that Reiner was known as The Bulldog.
The seed from the tree that has produced many Venezuelan big leaguers arrived from Hungary in the fourth decade of the last century. Andrés Reiner was the most influential figure in the development of baseball in Venezuela.
He arrived at the La Guaira port a few miles from Caracas when he was barely a little boy. At an early age he started to work as a goldsmith, and he never stopped polishing diamonds.
The Andres Reiner story is also the story of the surge of baseball academies in Venezuela by big league organizations.
Reiner’s contributions led to a subsequent boom in Venezuelan stars in the 90s and 2000s.
“Andres was a very kind man even though he had a complex personality,” said Juan Jose Avila, the president of the Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional. “He was a serene person.
“But he had great conviction and work ethic that led him to found an ambitious project like the Houston Astros’ academy, which opened the doors to the boom that came after.”
Avila worked with Reiner with the club Magallanes, where Reiner had his first brush with the sport of bats and balls.
Reiner arrived in Venezuela with his family in 1946 when he was 11 years old. His family initially planned to travel to the United States and Mexico as they fled the communism that was spreading in Eastern Europe.
He dedicated his youth to being a goldsmith and to sell pieces of jewelry in a Caracas that marched toward being a modern city.
He later moved to nearby Valencia, where he started to gain an affection for baseball. He liked baseball so much it eventually became his full-time job when he started a career as a scout.
His first scouting job with a Major League Baseball franchise was with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Then he became an Astros scout.
He eventually convinced the Astros to open an academy in Venezuela, setting the foundation for the Venezuelan boom in the majors.
“Andres’ legacy is immeasurable,” Venezuelan historian Javier Gonzalez said. “You’re talking about a person who created a project that gave many fruits. The talent was there and it probably would have come out, but not at the speed and volume that he did it.”
The Astros academy produced such figures as Cy Young Award winner Santana, American League Most Valuable Player Jose Altuve, Richard Hidalgo, Bobby Abreu, Melvin Mora, Carlos Guillén, Freddy García and Magglio Ordóñez, just to name a few.
Reiner believed in testing players before they could travel abroad. He used his own experience as an immigrant and applied it to baseball.
His successful model was copied quickly. Almost 20 other big league organizations opened academies in Venezuela. The now defunct Venezuelan summer league was even created to meet the demand of the developmental boom in the South American country.
Without that summer league perhaps players such as reliever Edubray Ramos of the Philadelphia Phillies might not have reached the majors.
Although the Astros shut down their academy in the mid 2000s, the Rays have the last academy that fights to stay on its feet in Venezuela.
Reiner’s legacy lives on, though.
Featured Image: Scott A. Schneider / Getty Images Sport