|
By Joe Avalrez’s reckoning, he has never held a job in his adult life.
The 52-year-old manager of the Hudson Valley Renegades has been employed in baseball for nearly 35 years and considers himself lucky to be able to make his living being around the game he loves.
“I’ve always said that when baseball became a job, then I would quit. Well, I’ve been in it for 35 years and I still don’t consider it a job,” said Alvarez in a recent telephone interview.
As a manager in the New York-Penn League, Alavarez travels by bus to ballparks in Vermont, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, but his baseball life has taken him much further afield.
Born in Cuba, Alvarez immigrated to the United States when he was 10, his family fleeing the Communist regime of Fidel Castro. The extended Alvarez clan was able to escape, but not without a cost.
“My family was very well off and very into politics. When they found out that (Cuba) was heading toward being a Communist regime, they went in and asked the government to let all of us go. They did, but in return we had to leave everything behind: businesses, money, whatever we had, which was quite a bit at the time.”
In 1966 the family settled first in suburban Boston, where his grandfather had gone to college to study dentistry. A few years later, Alvarez and his family picked up stakes again and moved to Elizabeth, N.J., so his parents could go to college in New York and reclaim their professional licenses.
“My father was a dentist and my mom was a pediatrician. They worked in a clothing factory and went to school at night and in seven years, they graduated.”
Alvarez’s love of baseball began in Cuba, where the game is wildly popular, and was nurtured by his grandfather, an ex-player. His first jersey was Lou Gehrig’s No. 4.
“I’ll never forget it, I wore that thing out,” he said.
In Elizabeth, Alvarez, a pitcher, and his brother George, a catcher, proved to be a formidable battery, winning championships together in middle school and high school. While George eventually continued the family tradition of being a dentist, Joe was drafted by the New York Yankees in 1974 as a shortstop and was later move to second base. According to Alvarez, the minor leagues of 30 years ago differed in some subtle but tangible ways.
“Back then, you were sort of on your own. Today, there is so much instruction as far as roving instructors and extra coaches. When I played, you learned a lot from each other, from your teammates, from watching the game. These days, we inundate these kids with so much information that I think we take away their initiative. Because they are spoon-fed, they just don’t think by themselves or for themselves as much.”
Chasing the dream
Like all ballplayers, Alvarez had a dream to reach the major leagues, but it wasn’t to be. After his rookie season he tore ligaments in his ankle while playing pick-up basketball.
“I played another three years after that, but it was never the same,” he said.
Along the way, Alvarez was traded to the Astros and then to Baltimore, where he reunited with the former Yankees executive Clyde Klutz, who offered him an opportunity to become a roving minor league instructor. Working for the Orioles for two years, Alvarez crossed paths early on with future Hall-of-Famer Cal Ripken Jr. in the Appalachian League.
“I’d be lying if I said when I first saw this guy that I thought he would go the Hall of Fame. I could see he had talent; it was just a matter of how dedicated he was going to be. Well, history tells the story.”
During entire decade of the 1980s Alavarez managed in the minors for the Los Angeles Dodgers for what he calls the best decade of his professional life. Starting in 1981, Alvarez also piloted a winter ball team in Columbia, which was of a higher quality than the low minors.
“This was a chance to manage talent that organizations felt were on its way to the big leagues. It was a college-type atmosphere. People in the Latin counties love their baseball and they are going to give it to you one way or another. Winning is everything over there because that is their major leagues. You could be the goat, or you could get the glory.”
Later, Alvarez would also manage winter ball in Mexico, but he was offered an even greater change in scenery in 1988 when the Dodgers signed a working agreement with the Chunichi Dragons of the Japan League, Alvarez was put in charge of instruction for the next three years. When the agreement ended in 1990, Alvarez opted to stay in the Far East and through his connections was offered a job as coach with a club in South Korea.
Alvarez was able to overcome whatever cultural or language barriers existed and thrived in Korea for seven years. “I’ve always been interested in trying new things and baseball is baseball everywhere you play. I enjoyed making a difference in their game. I always thought that there was more talent there than people in the U.S. gave credit for, especially pitching. They are very methodical and very sound fundamentally. They also have a lot of respect for the game. Baseball has a language that is universal.”
In 1998 Alvarez returned to Japan as an international scout and instructor before returning stateside to work for the Detroit Tigers as an international liaison and instructor at the Tigers’ baseball academy in the Dominican Republic. With the new millennium, Alvarez returned to an on-field role as coach in the Philadelphia Phillies organization before landing in Duchess County this year to manage the Renegades. At this point in his career, Alvarez said he enjoys working with young players and giving back to the game he loves.
“Baseball has been very good to me. I’ve traveled the world. I’ve had dinner with governors and presidents. I’m just giving back to the game that has given me so much,” he said.
