Venezuelan Bust, Baseball Boom: Andres Reiner and Scouting on the New Frontier

10. Refining the Product: The Venezuelan Summer League

143 When the Astros traveled to Valencia for a two-game spring training exhibition series against the Cleveland Indians in March 2001, Richard Hidalgo was asked to take on added duties. He not only assumed his regular position in center field for both contests, but before the second game he also carried the lineup card to the umpires and, along with Cleveland shortstop and fellow Venezuelan Omar Vizquel, joined local recording artist Mirla Castellanos in singing their country’s national anthem. Hidalgo—who received thunderous applause when he was introduced before the games—was coming off a season in which he had a .314 batting average with 44 home runs and 122 rbi, all career marks. And only two months earlier, he had signed a $32 million, four-year contract with Houston. Clearly the Astros had high expectations of Hidalgo. It seemed like a no-brainer for Astros owner Drayton McLane to make the three-hour flight from Orlando to visit the source of so much of his organization’s talent. He had never been to the Astros’ academy, but he was conspicuously absent on this trip. gm Gerry Hunsicker did, however, accompany the team for the games in Valencia. “It was extremely important for us to be down there because of our academy and the foothold that we have. Venezuela has been vital to our development efforts,” Hunsicker told me. “The fact that we could take our major league team would do nothing but reinforce and improve our popularity down there. It is also important for the kids in Venezuela to see our major league players just to show them what the dream is all about.” Refining the Product The Venezuelan Summer League 10 144 Refining the Product The kids Hunsicker was referring to were the four-dozen young men at the academy under contract to the Astros, and all of them were provided with tickets to attend one of the games. While in Valencia , Hunsicker took the opportunity to visit the academy. Although the Astros had improved the field, built a clubhouse with spartan office facilities, and added a batting cage, the facility had remained basically the same as when I first visited in 1990. That changed signi ficantly in November 2002 when construction was completed on the new living area and a second playing field. Andrés had convinced Hunsicker and Tal Smith to invest $600,000 to build a state-of-the art facility. The organization was spending over $300,000 a year to house and feed players in a motel, and Andrés explained that the new building would pay for itself in about three and a half years. The Astros had long been the frontrunner in academies in Venezuela, and the improvements elevated the complex to one of, if not the best, in all of Latin America. In 2003 the facility received a nineteen out a possible twenty score by Major League Baseball in its annual inspection of academies in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. The impressive two-story building is located along the left-field line of the main playing field. In the past players lived in a house rented by the organization, stayed with local families, or resided in a motel. Those arrangements proved either unsatisfactory or too expensive . On the top level of the new building there are twenty-four rooms that can accommodate forty-eight players. Each room is airconditioned , has a private bath, and is equipped with cable television. Because the players will be housed in this type of arrangement when they begin their minor league careers in the United States, Andrés believed it would be a good idea to get them accustomed to it in Venezuela . Between the two wings of rooms is a recreation area with picture windows overlooking both playing fields. The first floor has an office, conference room, clubhouse for Astros coaches, small gymnasium, classroom used for English lessons and lectures, and a dining area. The food is excellent and nutritionally balanced . I can attest to that: I spent a week there in May 2003 sleeping in one of the rooms and taking my meals with the players while gathering information for a story I was writing for the Astros Magazine. 145 Refining the Product That visit was my third opportunity to experience the living arrangements of the Astros’ prospects. In 1997 I spent a couple of...