Sports

SF Giants' Hispanic Stars Inspire in Mountain View

With 11 Hispanic players on the 25-man roster for the World Series, the Giants' Latin flair can be felt in the South Bay and beyond.

Pablo Sandoval's three home runs during Game No. 1 of the World Series made it even sweeter to be a Latino fan of the San Francisco Giants.

Match that with the contributions of his Venezuelan compatriots—Marco Scutaro's 12 game-hitting streak and Gregor Blanco's consistent defensive plays—and the presence of Hispanics in Los Gigantes becomes clearer and greater.

"Hispanics have always been a potency in baseball," said 57-year-old Alex Macuil of Palo Alto, who watched the match-up against the Detroit Tigers from inside the Los Altos Taqueria in Mountain View. "The fact that there are so many in the World Series is not surprising because they've always been."

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The Giants have five Venezuelans on their roster: Gregor Blanco, Jose Mijares, Hector Sanchez, Pablo Sandoval and Marco Scutaro; three Dominicans: Joaquin Arias, Sergio Casillas and Guillermo Mota; two Puerto Ricans—Angel Pagan, Javier Lopez; and the Mexican-American Sergio Romo, whose father and grandfather both played baseball in Mexicali.

The father of Mara Llanos also played in the Mexican baseball league in the city of Nayarit, so she grew up a fan of the American game despite soccer being Mexico's national sport. Her Mexican male co-worker didn't care much for baseball.

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And her favorite players are Tim Lincecum, Brandon Crawford and of course Sandoval.

"It's good to see Hispanics in the games," said Llanos, 23. "I believe that it motivates Hispanics children to play more."

From across the small and cozy yellow taqueria with a painting of old Spanish missions on the wall, sat a group of Latino teens. They watched game, ate burritos and drank aguas frescas. One of the girls at the table pointed out—as texted on her phone—that Sandoval now joined Babe Ruth, Reggie Jackson and Albert Pujols in scoring three homeruns in a World Series game.

Her friend Eric Calderon, 16, though he preferred American football, said he liked baseball and felt that the number of Latinos on the Giants was inspiring.

"It gives you that motivation to go out there and do big things," said the Gunn High School student. "If they could do it, we can."

The presence of Latino players on the Giants will continue to play a role as the team moves toward their goal to with the series—and they will not go unnoticed.

"They all bring something very important," Macuil said, "and even though it's nothing new, it's no longer just one or two players. It's a lot of players."

 

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