Puerto Rico players return to Taylor 41 years later to watch their league compete in Junior League Baseball World Series

By DAVE GORGON | |The New Herald

August 17, 2023 at 3:30 p.m.

Forty-one years ago, Martin Santos and Luis Rodriguez were part of the first team from Puerto Rico that played in the Junior League Baseball World Series in Taylor.

In 1982, the series was limited to 13-year-old players and was known as the 13-Year-Old World Series. Eventually, 14-year-olds were given entry to the Junior Division of Little League Baseball as well and there has been insurmountable growth in the program.

While Puerto Rico was the first “international” place to enter a national championship team, the modern-day World Series literally has teams from all over the world – including Australia, the Asia-Pacific, Europe, Africa,
other Latin America nations, Canada and, of course America.

The latter is what Santos and Rodriguez saw when they returned to Taylor to watch their childhood team, Vega Baja, play in this year’s series. For Santos, who created a close bond with members of the Pizzo family when he and teammate Jose Rodriguez stayed at their Taylor home in 1982, it was his fifth visit to the community.

And Santos and his family have welcomed Pizzos into their home and business as well.

For Luis Rodriguez, it was his first time back to the city that has always hosted the World Series. And this year, he is president of the Jaime Collazo Little League in Vega Baja. Santos called their participation in the 1982 World Series “one of the greatest experiences of my life.”

He remembers Vega Baja – like this year, the national champion of Puerto Rico – defeating a team from California twice and falling short against teams from Florida and Illinois. He pitched in two games, winning one against California and coming on in relief in another, and also played shortstop.

That year’s World Series was won by the Belmont Heights Little League in Tampa, Florida, whose roster included future Major League baseball players Gary Sheffield and Derek Bell – only two of the many JLWS players who have gone on to careers in professional sports.

“We were the underdogs that year,” Santos said. “We played a couple teams on the island that were bigger and had more skills than us. The will we had in that tournament made us the victors.”

The off-field life in Taylor remains fresh in his mind. All players stayed in local homes with local families back then. Santos remembers the kindness the Pizzos showed toward him, feeding him, transporting him to games and activities, washing their clothes and providing shelter during the week. They took the players to tour Detroit, including Hart Plaza.

“They made me a lot of pasta,” Santos said. “These people have been my family relationships for 41 years. They visit me and I visit them. They are like my family.”

Santos’ parents own a small ocean-front restaurant Sol y Mar, in Vega Baja. Mike and Kim Pizzo dined there when they were on their honeymoon. Santos went on to play semiprofessional baseball in Puerto Rico. When he stopped playing, he became a banker and continues to manage a First Bank of Puerto Rico in Bayamon.

At age 54, he has two sons and a daughter and a granddaughter on the way. His oldest son Martin Jr. played ball until he was 18 years old and is now an industrial engineer. His daughter Bianca is an accountant. And his other son Kenyon is a pitcher at Ellsworth Community College in Iowa.

At the field and in town, Santos reconnected with the Pizzos, even posing for photos with Sam Pizzo, the namesake of the Sam Pizzo Fields at Heritage Park.

“Martin’s my guy – he’s our Puerto Rican brother,” said Mike Pizzo, who still volunteers at the World Series all these years later. “We love him like a family member… It’s great to see him back this year.”

Luis Rodriguez played outfield, pitched and did some catching for the 1982 team. He remembers arriving in Taylor with a bat, a ball and a glove. He stayed with a different family, but has fond memories of that as well, saying the families treated the players so well even though they arrived as strangers.

“We were very proud,” Rodriguez said through Santos, who served as his interpreter. “Our identity as Puerto Rico was very important to us. Our heart is for our country.”

Rodriguez said he played ball almost 24 years, also making it to semipro ball in Puerto Rico. He went on to become a furniture salesman for an independent company. He has two daughters, Kiara and Sofia, and a son Luis Jr., who is currently playing semipro ball in Puerto Rico.

Rodriguez has been league president for many years. He was vice president of the league when the president resigned and has stayed with it.

“I fell in love with the position,” he said, saying he enjoys engaging with the players and families and representing “our hometown in Little League baseball.”

When the two men learned Vega Baja would be playing in Taylor for the first time since 1982, they knew they had to be there. Rodriguez “has been dreaming about this moment for a long, long, long time” and is “very humble to be here.” Santos said.

“This was his year,” Santos added. “He is very excited about it… That team came 41 years after us. He became emotional when he went to the field,” Santos said. “He had tears in his eyes.

Getting to the World Series is “his greatest achievement as a player and a president.” Just like that 1982 team, this year’s Vega Baja team finished the World Series 2-2.

The 2023 world championship game is scheduled for noon Sunday at Heritage Park.