BOSTON – A 9-year-old Otto Lopez and Montreal, Canada, didn’t get off on the right foot. Lopez, who only spoke Spanish at the time, had arrived in the dead of winter. Though there was a Latin community there, he missed the culture and food of his hometown of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Lopez yearned for the days of playing street ball with bottle caps and balls of tape. “I got there in winter and it was a little hard thinking about if it's going to be summer soon,” Lopez said. “But that's where I started my first season as a Little Leaguer.” Lopez’s dad, Otto Sr., worked as a truck driver and brought the family to Canada for a better life. He wanted his son to study. Otto Jr. had other ideas. “First thing that he wanted to do when he was there was to play baseball,” Lopez Sr. said via interpreter Luis Dorante Jr. “‘Buy me a bat and a glove.’ That's what he was doing all the time.” Otto Sr., who had never played baseball, was still an avid fan of the game, just like his fellow countrymen. Before Otto Jr. arrived in Montreal, Otto Sr. worked both the day and night shifts. He cut back to just the mornings so he could spend time with his son. |
The Majors felt like a faraway dream. Lopez didn’t see games in person, settling for watching them on TV. But things changed when a Little League tournament took place in Toronto, where his team saw Rogers Centre and learned the history of the Blue Jays’ ballpark. “All the ideas that I had when I was young, it was to be a Major League player,” Lopez said. “In my mind, that was one of the experiences that I will enjoy the most. And I worked really hard for it, and right now, we're here, and I know all the process that we went through. Looking back, it was a lot, but it worked.” It was around the age of 14 that Lopez, who is now trilingual, told his father that his French wasn’t going so well at Édouard-Montpetit School. He wanted to pursue baseball, which was tough to do year-round because of Canada’s climate. What if he went back to the Dominican Republic? Lopez’s uncle, Hurbano, used to play softball and knew someone at the Niche Academy, where Juan Soto developed. Both Otto Sr. and Hurbano agreed it was best for Otto Jr.’s dream, so he relocated. The decision paid off. Following a full year of training, Lopez signed as an international free agent with the Blue Jays on July 4, 2016. “He had faith that if he signed there, it was going to be successful for Otto,” Otto Sr. said. “Very proud that he was able to achieve that.” Added Otto Jr.: “When I was seeing my potential there in the DR, I was like, ‘Oh, I have a chance.’ And after a year, I started to do some tryouts and stuff, and after that, got more sorted about, and I signed.” |
Fast forward nine years to this weekend in Boston. Recently retired Otto Sr. made the four-hour drive across the border to sit in the family section at Fenway Park to watch his son play. These days, he splits his time between Montreal and the Dominican Republic. Otto Sr. has been able to catch other games in person, but this series coincides with Players’ Weekend. Major League Baseball uses it to showcase anything from players’ off-field interests, the people who helped them reach The Show or their favorite charity. “Otto is a guy that you can see has sacrificed a lot just to be where he is at,” Otto Sr. said. “Everything in life has sacrifices. I think he's the guy that was able to develop most of the way he did in DR. It was good to get with the culture. It was easy for him.” After cups of coffee in 2021-22 with Toronto, Lopez didn’t reach the big leagues again until last season with Miami. He is now the club’s everyday shortstop, and one of the game’s best on defense. In between, Lopez also competed for Team Canada at the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Otto Sr. could not be more proud of the man his son has become. In turn, Otto Jr. is appreciative of what his dad taught him about being a husband, dad and ballplayer. “All the sacrifices you make, it was just for him to reach his dream, and being able to see him reaching his dream, the satisfaction is just humongous,” Lopez Sr. said. |
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Stowers, who had a pair of customized bats for Players’ Weekend, used the blue one on Friday. It paid tribute to a pair of influential figures in his life: Jason Lyon and Jason Jenkins. Lyon was one of Stowers’ best friends from high school who passed away from brain cancer his senior year. The bat displays his No. 37 from the baseball team, angel wings, a cross and #LyonHearted, which was the social media hashtag used by the community to honor the teenager. Jenkins is Stowers’ mentor who helped him overcome adversity to break out in an All-Star campaign. His mantra “Fight the Bear” is present on the barrel, with the image of a bear. “It was cool,” said Stowers, who went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. “I had a bunch of awesome support texts from a lot of people from back home. There was a really cool picture of one of those swings that kind of had the ‘fight the bear’ picture. So that's cool. Wish I could have used them today.” |
TYLER PHILLIPS Phillips had his young son, Frank, and wife, Richelle, decorate a pair of his cleats. Frank gravitated toward bright colors and drew a spider and Superman logo. His wife added the Bible verse Joshua 1:9 inside the tongue of the shoe. “I don't have many interests,” Phillips said. “I play video games. I play baseball. Everything else I'm not allowed to do because it's in contract. My interest is them, honestly. On my off-days, I hang out with them. Offseason, when I'm not working out, I'm hanging out with my son. So I figured I've seen people go to children's hospitals and have kids paint stuff. I just had my son, Frank, and my wife do it. Just let them get creative with it.” |
EURY PÉREZ Pérez, who wrote his late grandmother’s name, Juana Pichardo, on his cap and behind the mound in his return from Tommy John surgery in June, honored her again with his cleats. The shoes feature an anime-style cartoon of Pérez and Pichardo, the Dominican Republic flag, his nickname “Baby Goat” with an emoji, waves for the beach and his hometown of Santiago. |
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