The player of Philadelphia Phillies talked about there are not magic formulas to the success on the Mayor Leagues and every journey is different.
Become a professional athlete is, probably, one of the most difficult dreams of any person interested in doing it. The competition is regular, the ups and downs too, the preparation, watch rivals, fight with coaches and all that it entails.
However, those people that achieve to be a professional player, they do not have just fight with all the above. They have also a constant pressure to play good, under the worry they can be fired at any time.
This is the reality of Dominican ball–makers that they achieve to play at Mayor Leagues. Jean Segura talked about that, second baseman of Philadelphia Phillies for the newspaper “El Caribe de República Dominicana“.
“It´s been 11 years of sacrifice since i signed. For me it has been a blessing. Baseball has helped me to get my family forward and to represent to Dominican Republic, I am almost done 10 years of service on the Mayors” started explaining the Dominican baseball player.
Segura also talked about his hard starts and how could he leave everything because of the situation that he lived. “Sometimes a good advice to rookies it help them more than a good day on the pitch, he will remember the advice the whole life. Carlos Gomez it helped me on the beginning at Milwaukee, when the things were really difficult. I remember that I had the loss of my first child at 2014“.
“The things on the mental aspect were too difficult for me. Actually I was out from baseball because I was not focus on the game. I wanted to do my job but we are humans too and we have feelings. On that moment, Carlos (Gomez) appeared, who always was there and raised me up”.
He also said that Nelson Cruz and Robinson Cano have been players that always supported him during the up and downs moments. “Many people forget about that is not the same to be a baseball player that know how to play baseball. I think that the younger players need to learn that, what is the game itself and also that we play for a team, that we play with teammates that follow us, that who admire us“, concluded the player.
He has a really great start with Phillies this season and we will see if he can keep the level during all these coming months.
Jorge Barbero