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HOUSTON — When Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez stepped as much as the plate within the first inning Tuesday evening, he had three additional particular visitors cheering for him.
Recent after arriving from Cuba, his father, Agustín Eduardo Álvarez Salazar, teary-eyed mom Mailyn Cadogan Reyes and brother Yonder Alvarez Cadogan every proudly wore an Alvarez jersey as they gazed wide-eyed on the subject, watching the Houston star play professionally for the primary time.
“That is one in all my largest moments in my complete life,” his father advised The Related Press in Spanish by way of an interpreter. “And I may be capable of say so many phrases, however the fact is that there aren’t any phrases to specific what I am feeling proper now.”
His son did his half, too, hitting an early single towards the Minnesota Twins.
To be at Minute Maid Park to see Alvarez play for the primary time in his fourth main league season was an extended and arduous operation that concerned many roadblocks.
“It was an in depth course of to get right here,” Salazar mentioned. “We have needed to undergo plenty of difficulties to get right here in the present day.”
Regardless of these struggles, the household by no means misplaced hope that they’d make it to see their son play within the majors. They arrived on Friday.
“It by no means crossed our minds that we weren’t going to have the ability to be right here,” his father mentioned. “We all know that with the intention to make issues occur now we have to confront difficulties and that is why we’re right here in the present day.”
So how did Alvarez, who has lengthy spoke of his need for his household to see him play, reply when he realized that they’d lastly be watching him after such an extended wait?
“He was simply comfortable and excited as a result of we had been all ready for this second to come back,” Salazar mentioned.
Alvarez defected from Cuba in 2016 and established residence in Haiti earlier than signing with the Dodgers as a world free agent in June of that 12 months. That August he was traded to the Astros. He made his MLB debut in June 2019 and went on to win American League Rookie of the Yr.
His mother and father missed that stellar rookie season in addition to his two journeys to the World Sequence. They mentioned the final time they noticed him play in individual got here all the best way again in 2014.
Whereas they had been away from their son they nervous a bit, however they did not have too many issues as a result of they knew there was a complete group maintaining a tally of the 25-year-old.
“I need to thank Houston as a result of … they’ve adopted Yordan as their very own child,” his father mentioned. “And that is one thing that makes us really feel secure and in peace. And I am glad for that.”
His father beamed as he watched his son’s first at-bat Tuesday. For his mom the whole evening was a bit an excessive amount of.
When reminded of a recreation earlier this 12 months when Alvarez known as her again house to say he’d hit a homer for her on her birthday, she grew to become overcome with emotion and wept overtly — wiping away tear after tear as they streamed down her face.
“I am simply proud,” his mom mentioned. “And this can be a feeling that solely a mother is aware of what it looks like. I haven’t got phrases to specific what I am feeling proper now and what’s going by way of my thoughts proper now.”
It was straightforward to see how proud Alvarez’s mother and father are of their son, who entered Tuesday tied for third within the majors with 31 homers. And though they’re thrilled together with his success on the sector, they’re equally excited for who he’s off it.
“The very first thing that makes us really feel proud is the human being that he has grow to be, that we raised such a superb child,” Salazar mentioned. “Since he was a child, we noticed the expertise that he has, however we by no means thought or imagined how far he was going to go and the way far he has been capable of get to. So, we’re simply asking God to bless him and keep his well being.”
For now, the household is staying with Alvarez at his house in Houston. They are not certain how lengthy they will get to remain. However for nevertheless lengthy it’s they’re absorbing each second.
Requested what the long-awaited evening meant to them, each mom and father responded nearly in unison with the identical phrase.
“Un sueño hecho realidad,” they mentioned in Spanish.
Translation: A dream come true.
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