Coming here as a teenager to play baseball in the minor leagues can be a lonely, dispiriting experience, Rodriguez said. Knowing that, Rodriguez wants to help both Urbina, who has the added burden of knowing his father sits in a jail in Venezuela, convicted of a gruesome crime, and Urbina’s teammates.
“I’m not doing this just because it’s Ugueth Urbina’s son,” Rodriguez said. “I’m doing it because these are kids from Venezuela like I was. When I came here, I was 17 years old and I didn’t know any English or anything about American culture, and I suffered a lot. I don’t want anyone else to go through the same thing that I went through.”
Most days, Rodriguez picks up Urbina and several of his teammates in his S.U.V. and brings them back to his home here, where he and a friend cook for them. The players watch TV or play video games and talk about baseball and life, and America. And then Rodriguez takes them back to their hotel before curfew.
So who did that for Rodriguez when he was signed by the Angels in 1998?
“There was nobody,” he said. “I just sat in my hotel room.”
