His name was Tony Lopez, he was a fifteen year old boy from Cuba. The year was 1979. He stood six feet, four inches tall and he was left handed. He had dark skin, curly black hair, and big old bright shiny blue eyes. He had a dream that every teenage boy from Cuba had, he wanted to be a professional baseball player and player in the MLB .(Major League Baseball). There was only two problems, he lived in Cuba and the ruler of Cuba was Fidel Castro, he would not any Cuban’s leave the country and the MLB was in the United States.
He had quite a large family, he had three little brothers and they were triplets, his mother, his father, and his grandfather. They were all super close and were practically inseparable. They did everything together. They never missed a meal together, every morning and every night they were all at the dinning room table for breakfast and dinner. They would spend late nights at that table talking about the future and how Tony’s baseball career is going to be the thing that gets them out of Cuba and into the United States. His father and grandfather taught him everything there was to know about baseball. They trained him long and hard, day after day, in dusty alley way behind their house. When Tony was not training with his father and grandfather he was playing pickup games with all of the neighborhood kids. All of the kids loved to play baseball, but who ever was not on Tony’s team always complained and whined because he was too good and they would say it was unfair. No one could ever get a hit off of Tony, people said he literally brought the heat. Catchers were afraid to catch his fastball because it would hurt their hands. There were rumors that when he pitched the ball, all you could see was a burning ball of hot red flames.
One day on a bright sunny Saturday morning a group of older American men showed up to the alleyway where Tony and his friends were playing ball at. They were all approximately in their forties,they could tell by the touch of grey in their hairs and the slight wrinkles under their eyes. The group of three males asked if they could join, the boys all agreed to let them play. There was one player in particular that really stood out to them and that was Tony. They had never seen a kid his size for his age and who was incredibly talented as he was. They said he was more rare then a three head goat. What Tony did not know, is that they were scouts for the New York Yankees. They asked him if he would like to come to the United States with him and they would train him and eventually have him be on the team. His eyes filled with joy, his dreams had finally came true he thought. Then he asked, “What about my family, can they come to?” The group of gentlemen all said “ I’m sorry son, but there is not enough room on the plane for your family, we would only be able to take you, but if you and your family could find another way into the United States we would still be happy to have you be apart of our team.” “But what about Castro? There is no way he will let me leave here.” Said Tony, he was very puzzled and upset. All three men laughed and giggled, then one smiled at him and said “Let us worry about that boy, that will be easy. We can make sure you do not get caught.” Tony sat there thinking and finally said, “Ok guys heres the deal, my family has always taught me everything I know about baseball and life, I can not just leave them behind. I guess we will have to build some sort of boat and float there.” Tony explained. Then one of the men said, “But young man, what if you and your family do not make it, then your dream of becoming a major league baseball player will be over.” “Well I guess that is the risk I am going to have to take. I love my family way to much to leave them behind, we have been dreaming of the day of becoming U.S citizens for my whole life. Do not get me wrong guys, I love baseball but nothing means more to me then my family.”Said Tony. Then one of the men smiled and said, “ You know what Tony, I really like you. You seem like a real great guy. I will have another plane here Monday to pick you and your family up. You are officially a Yankee, congratulations kid. We will make sure Castro does not find out.”