The Deeper Meaning Behind the Greatest Home Run in MLB History
Three special people were in the crowd when Yordan Alvarez hit his game-winning home run on Tuesday
When Yordan Alvarez was a young teenager growing up in eastern Cuba, he had a spry, wild swing. He’d go to the baseball field, hit with his team, and one day, he approached his dad with a dream. Yordan told his father that he wanted to play Major League Baseball, and even though there were kids more polished at the time, Agustin Alvarez told his son that he’d do anything he could to make that dream happen.
And so, in 2015, when he was still a teenager, Yordan left home for the Dominican Republic, where Agustin had arranged for a coach to train his son. They couldn’t have known then that just seven years later, Yordan would hit what might just be the greatest home run in MLB history.
And even more unlikely was who sat in the crowd at Minute Maid Park to watch it happen.
You have to understand: when Cuban ballplayers leave the island, their memories are often relegated to the shadows. State television rarely broadcasts MLB games, and when they do, they’re often tape delayed and don’t include Cuban players. It’s all a government-led effort to limit idolatry towards defectors. So, when Yordan left home, his parents could only follow their son’s accomplishments when the Internet worked or through neighbors’ whispers when shopping in town. “The greatest pain in my life is not having my son by my side,” Agustin told MLB.com in 2019.
Shortly after Yordan joined the Astros in 2019, he began to meet weekly with Carlos Rosas, the team’s immigration counsel. Their goal was to get Alvarez’s family—his parents and little brother—to Houston to watch a game in person. The problem? “It’s basically impossible for a Cuban national to get a visa right now,” Rosas explained to the Houston Chronicle.
But Rosas pulled every string and tried every trick. In 2020, he secured visas for the entire family to go to the Dominican Republic. After two years of begging, the Mexican consulate agreed to hear their case and eventually granted them a visa. In August of this year, the Alvarezes finally made it from Mexico to Houston. At their first game, they heard the roar when their son came up to bat, and they saw jerseys bearing their surname everywhere they looked. Afterwards, Yordan’s mother Mailyn had to go to the ER because her blood pressure had climbed so high from the excitement.
No matter. Since his family finally joined him in the States, Yordan has a .343 batting average. In game one of the ALDS against the Seattle Mariners, down two runs and on the game’s final out, Alvarez launched a home run into right field to win the game.
Sitting in section 122 on the first base line, his family cheered with the rest of the stadium.
“We're a team that never gives up,” the slugger told reporters after the game.
It’s hard to tell whether he was talking about the Astros or the Alvarezes.
⚾ As much as we love seeing Yordan and his family win, watch this video, and try not to pull for the Seattle Mariners (wait for the end).
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