Overcoming great obstacles, Nicaraguan team soaks in first RBI World Series

The 29th RBI World Series is underway at the Jackie Robinson Training Complex in Vero Beach, Fla. The tournament has a long history, but this year, it features a welcomed new addition: a team from Nicaragua.

The RBI World Series, which hosts nearly 200 young athletes ages 13 to 19 on 24 baseball and softball teams, consists of players from 16 cities around the United States and Puerto Rico. And now Nicaragua, whose team, Helping Kids Round First, represented its country in the Junior division (ages 13-15). It meant a lot for the players to be there, not only because it was the first team to be able to represent their country, but also because of the journey to get there.

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It was not an easy path to the tournament for the Nicaraguan team. It faced many challenges, starting with three of its coaches losing their visas. It left the team with one assistant coach and two project directors from the nonprofit sponsoring the team to step up.

“It’s never easy and things in Nicaragua are not easy,” said Craig Severtson, founder and CEO of Helping Kids Round First academy, about the journey. “Thankfully, with Major League Baseball's help, they flew us out of Managua, Nicaragua, for the tournament.”

The team was committed to going to Puerto Rico and playing in the World Regionals, but it faced another obstacle: finances. The team could not afford a flight straight to Puerto Rico, so it took a bus from Nicaragua’s capital, Managua, to Honduras and then on to El Salvador.

From there, the team was able to fly to Miami, which was a two-day trip that had a 10- to 12-hour layover, and then it was able to reach its final destination, Puerto Rico.

All the traveling meant the kids on the team were unable to sleep much, which showed in their first game of the regionals. But they ended up making a championship game and playing Puerto Rico, before having to make the journey back home in the same fashion.

It was not only the journey that these kids took to make it, but their individual stories. Many of the kids on the team reside from the Rivas area in southern Nicaragua, a community with an estimated population of just over 55,000. But not all of them are from that area.

One example is the team’s shortstop, Edgar Lopez. The young player lives on the twin volcanic island of Ometepe, and his house is at the base of the volcano. To be part of the team, he has to take a one-hour ferry each way. The ticket for the ferry is not cheap, so the team spends $100 a month to let him ride the ferry every day.

The team reaped the benefits of investing in the player, as Lopez was the leading hitter during the regionals, but the team almost was forced to play without him for the RBI tournament. Lopez was left without a visa due to a computer glitch that even led U.S. Sen. John Thune to work with an immigration expert and project director to get the issue resolved.

Now, Lopez and his team are benefitting from a project that started 14 years ago when the RBI program gave Nicaraguan kids baseball gloves and bats. The delegation that took 50 pounds of baseball gear, uniforms, bats and catcher's gear to Nicaragua has now translated to the country’s first RBI team in the tournament.

The tournament was a good opportunity for the team members to experience what life is like outside of their community.

“The kids’ feeling has to be one of amazement,” Severtson said. “This is all brand new: the airports, United States, and the whole experience."

It was only a different experience for them, but one that may translate to one of them becoming the next Dennis Martinez, a Nicaraguan MLB pitcher from 1976-98. It will get their names out there and start their baseball journeys, as it has for many notable RBI alumni such as Jackie Bradley Jr. (formerly with the Boston Red Sox), J.P. Crawford (Seattle Mariners) and Hunter Greene (Cincinnati Reds).