San Francisco, CA: Today we traveled to San Francisco to award the 2021 A.L. LatinoMVP Pitcher award to, Carlos Rodón. The day was not the typical baseball day for a game in Oracle Park. The chilly 63 degrees, cloudy grey day and the constant never ending in and out rain made this an untypical day for a California baseball game and a for a pregame on field award presentation.
However, a prestigious recognition like the LatinoMVP award that has a history of 32 consecutive years was not about to let the unpleasant weather rain on Carlos Rodón’s award day. This day was selected as this is also the Giants yearly Fiesta Gigante where they celebrate the richness of the Latino culture during this Hispanic Heritage Month.
We want to thank the Giants media department worked with us to assure Carlos had his day in the sun during this cloudy raining day. The weather did not allow for us to have a pregame on field presentation, so they arranged for us to give the award in the Giants dugout prior to the game. They had their film, camera, and social media people all present to record the presentation to be played on the giant jumbotron at some point during the game.
When he arrived at the dugout we both made eye contact and we smiled as we have been waiting for this moment for a while. It was a pleasure to see Carlos Rodón again. Last time I saw him was during the All-Star game in July when I interviewed him on winning the award. We both parted and looked forward to seeing each other when we received a date from the Giants to give him his award during Hispanic Heritage month. The Giants contacted us and chose September 18th as this is the day they celebrate “Fiesta Gigante”.
Though it was cloudy and raining the warmth, love in the dugout generating from all the smiles when Carlos received his long-awaited award was worth the wait for all parties. Carlos could not stop looking at the details of his artistic drawing done by our artist, Maz. He said, “this is going up on my living room wall.” We also gave him a copy for his mother who he said was a proud Cubana and would love to have a copy.
Carlos and I remained in the dugout after everyone else had left and it was like two homeboys talking about everything from the proposed changes to baseball to Bad Bunny. We talked about the growth of the Latino community; he gave me his opinion of who he would vote for this year’s pitchers and closers. We also spoke about the future of the LatinoMVP award. He stated that with the growth of so many Latino players and the Latino community now and in the future, MLB should make this award one of their own awards and highlight it throughout baseball.
It was a cloudy, raining and bit chilly day, but the sun did come out on occasion and the warmth of this Fiesta Gigante was felt throughout with the Regaeton, the Mariachis, and of course the LatinoMVP award to Carlos Rodón.
