San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Finding a better life through baseball
Honduran emigre at 15, Dubon now a Giants prospect
SACRAMENTO — In June 2010, long before he became the Giants’ second baseman of the future, Mauricio Dubon attended a baseball clinic in his hometown of San Pedro Sula, Honduras, then known as the murder capital of the world.
Dubon, only 15 at the time, harbored an uncommon dream in his dangerous, soccermad country: He wanted to play in the major leagues. He also was skeptical, partly because of the difficulty his older brother, Danilo, encountered trying to play professionally.
Jeanette Dubon was protective of her youngest child — she refused to let him sleep over at friends’ houses — but she understood his grand ambitions. She knew he would have a better chance to chase a baseball career in the United States.
So Jeanette asked Nelson Randolph and Vince Limon, a visiting coach and pastor from Sacramento running the clinic and goodwill mission, if they could take Mauricio back with them. Andy Ritchey, a Capital Christian High School parent also on the trip, agreed with his wife to serve as Dubon’s host family.
Dubon met Ritchey on a Wednesday and boarded an airplane with him and his son, Ben, on Saturday, bound for Sacramento.
“My whole life changed in four days,” Dubon said.
Dubon spoke broken English and knew virtually nobody in the U. S., but the Ritcheys shared his passion for
“It’s just crazy. You come here at 15 and think you’re going to play for the Giants?
And now to be able to do that, with one more step, it’s surreal.”
Mauricio Dubon, Giants infield prospect
baseball — and they happened to be Giants fans. He walked into the China Basin ballpark at a GiantsPadres game in August 2010, gazed at the vast frontier of emerald green grass and proclaimed, “Someday I’m going to play here.”
That day is fast approaching.
The Giants acquired Dubon, 25, from Milwaukee on July 31 and are expected to promote him from TripleA Sacramento to San Francisco when rosters expand Sept. 1. Last month, he became only the second player born in Honduras to reach the majors ( he appeared in two games with the Brewers), and he’s believed to be the first born and raised there.
Now he’s back in Northern California, where his journey started, potentially as a key piece in the reshaping of the Giants. As he sat in the thirdbase dugout before a recent Sacramento River Cats game, Dubon smiled as he fielded a question about this fullcircle element.
“It’s just crazy,” he said. “You come here at 15 and think you’re going to play for the Giants? And now to be able to do that, with one more step, it’s surreal.
“I used to go to games wearing a Brandon Crawford jersey, and now to hopefully play sidebyside with him would be pretty special.”
Honduras, a country of more than 9 million people in Central America, has issues beyond crime and gangs and drugs. More than 66% of the population lived in poverty in 2016, according to the World Bank. Dubon grew up neither wealthy nor poor, by his own description. His dad, Danilo, was a trucker. His mom was a nurse. Dubon praised his parents for their sacrifices so he and his brother ( now an engineer) could have a better life.
Even if he didn’t feel in constant danger in San Pedro Sula, he didn’t need to look far for reminders. Several childhood friends and classmates are dead, victims of the country’s violent culture.
“But it shaped me into the way I am today,” Dubon said. “You’ve got to be confident. You can’t back down from anything; you have to have that mentality. It’s dangerous, so you learn how to take care of yourself and grow up quicker than average kids.”
Dubon found refuge in baseball, even if he wasn’t optimistic his bigleague dreams would come true. He attended two tryout camps in neighboring Nicaragua at ages 14 and 15, hoping to put himself in position to sign when he turned 16.
The feedback from scouts was discouraging. Too small. Too skinny. Swing won’t translate to the pro game.
“That kind of fueled me and put a chip on my shoulder,” he said.
Asked if the chip traces mostly to his modest size — now he’s 6 feet tall but only 160 pounds — Dubon replied, “Oh, yeah, let’s throw a fastball down the middle to the little guy. Little do they know, it goes 400 feet.”
This bravado served Dubon well when he crossed paths with Ritchey and the Capital Christian traveling party. Limon, the pastor who helped coach at the school, occasionally visited poor countries such as Honduras to share the gospel, donate baseball equipment and conduct clinics. Andy and Ben Ritchey went along in June 2010, as a way to see another part of the world and help less fortunate people. They didn’t expect to bring home another baseballcrazy teenager, but Ben and Mauricio ( who are six months apart in age) clicked instantly — and that was enough for Sandy Ritchey, Andy’s wife.
It all happened quickly, culminating in a memorable and tearful scene at the airport as Andy, Ben and Mauricio departed for Northern California.
“Huge leap of faith,” Andy Ritchey said. “I will never forget going up the escalator and looking back at his family — they met me three days ago and now I’m
“I left my country to pursue a better life. I feel bad for those people,
that they’re trapped in cages like animals. It’s not right.”
Mauricio Dubon, Giants prospect, empathizing with immigrants detained at the border
taking their kid. It was emotional.
“He’s literally living his dream now … and going up that escalator was a necessary step for the dream to happen.”
Dubon was painfully homesick his first summer in Sacramento — he spent many nights crying, as Sandy Ritchey consoled him. He ultimately returned to Honduras for his sophomore year of high school in 201011.
The next summer, Dubon came back to Sacramento to live with the Ritcheys and spend his junior and senior years at Capital Christian. He moved out of the spare bedroom and slept in the same room as Ben; they routinely talked baseball deep into the night, plotting pickoffs ( Dubon played shortstop and Ritchey was a pitcher).
Dubon hit .477 as a senior, earning MaxPreps small schools allstate honors. The Red Sox selected him in the 26th round of the June 2013 amateur draft, christening his six yearsandcounting tour of the minor leagues. Boston traded him to Milwaukee in December 2016. Dubon came to the U. S. on a student visa, as part of Capital Christian’s international program. All these years later, as he reflected on his journey, Dubon understands why many immigrants risk so much in their effort to reach this country.
He empathizes with those detained at the border, and their living conditions — the root of the furor surrounding President Trump’s immigration policies.
“I left my country to pursue a better life,” Dubon said. “I feel bad for those people, that they’re trapped in cages like animals. It’s not right.”
Dubon exudes an unmistakable charisma, with his easy smile and engaging manner. He also looks like he’s still 15, in one respect: He’s strikingly slender, barely filling out his orange “Sactown” jersey on this particular Friday night.
His emotional side surfaced in the loss to Memphis, when he twice slammed his bat in frustration after popups. Dubon hit only .250 in his first 15 games with Sacramento, perhaps too eager to impress friends in his adopted hometown.
Still, his numbers for the season illustrate why the Giants acquired him when trading pitchers Drew Pomeranz and Ray Black to the Brewers. Dubon was hitting .292 overall ( mostly at TripleA San Antonio) through Friday, with 17 home runs, 25 doubles and 50 RBIs.
That kind of production is especially impressive in the wake of a 2018 season cut short after 27 games because of a torn ACL.
“He’s kind of been on the radar for a while, a guy who’s been a really good allaround player in the minors,” said Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi. “He’s very athletic. Not just a pure athlete but a baseball athlete — the way he moves in the batter’s box, on the bases, out in the field. There’s a lot to like.
“The reports we’re getting from Sacramento is that it seems like there’s one play every game, whether on the bases or in the field or taking a good atbat, where he’s helping the team in a little way. He just plays the game with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. As we’re trying
to get younger and more athletic, that profile really fits.”
Dubon mostly has played shortstop on his rise through the minors, though he occasionally slides over to second base. Zaidi also can picture him roaming center field; he started five games there in the 2016 Arizona Fall League.
Zaidi fully expects Dubon to compete for a spot on the Giants’ Opening Day roster next season. And it requires no sixth sense to spot the potential vacancy at second base, with Joe Panik gone and Scooter Gennett eligible for free agency in the offseason.
As for Dubon’s slight frame, Zaidi said, “It’s not a concern from a hitting or power standpoint, because he’s obviously showed the ability to hit the baseball hard. But it’s going to be more about durability and the ability to hold up over a 162game season.”
To this point, Dubon’s majorleague experience totals all of two atbats and one inning on defense, during his brief stint with the Brewers. He grounded out July 7 against Pirates closer Felipe Vazquez and struck out July 12 against Shaun Anderson of the Giants.
Widen the scope and Zaidi has profound respect for people such as Dubon who must adapt to a different country and culture at a young age. Baseball was his daily companion, his connection to form a brotherly bond with Ben Ritchey and other Capital Christian teammates. ( Dubon, incidentally, also holds the soccer program’s school record for goals in a season.) Now, when he returns to Honduras in the offseason, he’s the one donating equipment and holding clinics for young players. Dubon reminds the kids that he once played on the same fields where they play today.
He’s moved on, nineplus years removed from his first taste of life in the U. S. and one tantalizing phone call from suiting up in a Giants uniform in San Francisco — just as he predicted in 2010.
“I will be crying my eyes out,” Sandy Ritchey said.
“You can’t back down from anything; you have to have that mentality.”
Mauricio Dubon, Giants prospect, on growing up in Honduras