More than Draft Ready: Kids at National Baseball Academy Prepare for Future

Many aspiring players from Puerto Rico will nervously pay attention as Major League Baseball’s annual June draft starts Monday.

They’ve prepared for this moment at the National Baseball Academy in Carolina, Puerto Rico, the past several years. They hope a major league organization calls their names in the amateur draft. Not all of their hopes are placed in this one path, however.

The academy’s mission includes ensuring students are attentive to their academic studies and therefore in position to receive a scholarship to play at a junior college or a four-year school in the United States mainland.

The fact that players at the academy are even in position to be ready for the June draft is a testament to the resiliency they have demonstrated since Hurricane Maria carved its destructive path through the island in September 2017.

Bouncing Back

The kids and coaches at the National Baseball Academy are powerful examples of the resiliency that has defined Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria.

They were certainly not unique in the circumstances they were dealing with after Hurricane Maria struck. Operating in Roberto Clemente’s hometown and seeking to have its students follow Clemente’s path from Carolina to the big leagues provide unique backdrops to their story.

They encountered debris everywhere, blocked roads and no power for months. The monotony of living without power is a lot for anyone, but it’s especially difficult for teenagers used to being on the move with social media to stay in touch with friends, or playing video games.

The National Baseball Academy staff and the players’ parents formulated plans to get the kids back on the field. They cleared debris from the ballfield where the academy held their practice before the hurricane. This got the kids out of the house and back into shape, mentally and physically. Playing baseball was a return to some sense of normality.

In the Shadows of Clemente

Founded in 2016, the National Baseball Academy operates in the shadow of Clemente. Just about everyone in Carolina knows who Clemente was and what he represents to Puerto Rico.

Being from Clemente’s hometown was inspiration for Rafael Pares, the academy’s founder. Carolina had lacked its own baseball academy. He was inspired by the need to develop talent and improve the baseball in Carolina.

“And obviously, we would like to be successful in this sport through youth while we show them right path, both academically and in sports,” he said.

The National Baseball Academy may not have the financial resources of the Carlos Beltrán Academy in Florida, Puerto Rico. It also doesn’t yet have the alumni base of the Puerto Rico Baseball Academy, which produced 2015 American League Rookie of the Year Carlos Correa of the Astros and Christian Vázquez of the Red Sox.

But it does have its own strategic plan and mission. Their mission, according to Barto Torres, head coach at the academy, is to have a baseball program for economically disadvantaged kids.

Difficult Days

The days leading up to and after Hurricane Maria’s landfall were difficult and nerve-wracking.

“Like three or four days before Maria when we actually got confirmed that the hurricane was coming, we had a chat on WhatsApp, and people started to ask, ‘Are we gonna play again? Is the field gonna at least hold up?’” Torres said.

A month passed before the coaches got to the ballpark to check the field’s condition. Flooded streets. Downed power lines. Streetlights strewn across roads. It was little surprise then when Torres and other academy staff finally were able to access the park, it was an utter mess.

Once they saw the actual devastation, the academy’s coaches and administrators worried about the safety of their kids living throughout Carolina and how they would handle the aftermath.

Play Ball

La Vida Baseball visited the academy in December 2018. The majority of the park’s outfield lights still didn’t work. This was the new normal for the coaches and players.

Torres saw two options for his players.

“We don’t play baseball, we don’t have a field, or we gotta work,” he told the players. “We gotta put some work in until we play baseball.”

That’s when everyone associated with the academy demonstrated their resiliency. They went to work, clearing the field and holding modified practices on a parking lot during the period the field remained unusable.

Kids rushed to the park after getting out of class at 3 p.m. Without lights at the park they hurried to get a couple of hours of practice and then head home before nightfall.

Playing baseball was restorative for the youngsters, the coaches, and their families. Anything approximating a return to normalcy helped take their minds off of the damage that had been done and the slow recovery, even if only for a while.

The homes of a few of the academy’s players had been destroyed by the hurricane. Yomil Maysonett, the first student from the academy to be drafted by a major league organization, lost his family’s home. The Maysonett family wasn’t the only one from the academy that needed to find a new place after the hurricane.

Conditions were dire in the home where Abby Sosa lived. The Sosa home had several feet of water. More precariously, water was coming out of electrical outlets, making it dangerous to take a shower or bath for fear of electrocution. Sosa was not the lone student at the academy who dealt with the daunting reality of not having a home.

“It was so important to us to get back to the field,” Torres said. “It’s hard to live months without light. Some people didn’t have water, food, gas. … Literally everything was destroyed. We didn’t have a lot of things to do. … After 5:30 you just can’t go out. It’s too dangerous. No lights, no nothing, no cops, just nothing.”

But back at the baseball diamond, they could enjoy each other’s company. Laughter could once again be heard, a good time to be with friends while working at the game they love.

More than Draft Ready

Ballfields were no longer being tended by the municipalities, which had other priorities. Upon returning to their practice field, the daily practice schedule changed. Players now had to take care of the field, add sand to the field, and cut the grass when they weren’t going through workout drills and practice.

The extra work preparing the field enhanced the work ethic of the academy’s players. It extended the lesson about working hard from their game to literally making sure there was a place to play. If they didn’t do the work, there was no field to practice.

Learning to work hard is part of what Maysonett appreciated about his time at the National Baseball Academy. The righthanded pitcher was drafted in the sixth round by the Cincinnati Reds, becoming the first Puerto Rican selected in the 2018 draft.

Maysonett was with the academy from its start, when there were just seven players. The number of players shot up to 23 during the second year. Evidence that scouts were paying attention to the academy’s students came that second year when the Reds selected Maysonett.

Academic Plans

“It’s a small academy but we have a great regiment,” he told La Vida Baseball in December. “The coaches are great, and everything is great. I feel very satisfied with the work they did with me so that I could achieve what I want, which is be a professional baseball player. And what I want is to make it to the big leagues.”

Those at the academy need to maintain a 2.8 grade point average or better to even practice. The underlying message imparted by Pares and Torres about academics stuck with Maysonett.

“What’s important here is always the academics … You have to get your studies done during the day to be able to achieve what you want and obviously that is to be a professional ball player,” Maysonett said.

Oscar Santos, a current senior and draft prospect, agreed on the emphasis placed by the academy’s staff.

“Academics are very important because the coaches and the staff want us to get a commitment or a college full scholarship,” Santos said. “And then, if we don’t have the opportunity to get drafted or sign with a professional team, we can go to the United States and play for a good college or university.”

In Maysonett’s case, he felt good when draft day came in 2018. Had the Reds not drafted him, a baseball scholarship was waiting for him at Florida Atlantic University.

While Santos and other academy players hope to be drafted by a major league organization, they also know they will have options to go to junior college, a four-year school or professional baseball.

They have a foundation of academics, an enhanced work ethic, and the knowledge that they survived one of the most devastating hurricanes to strike their island.

Featured Image: La Vida Baseball

Inset Images: La Vida Baseball