One of the more cooler baseball journeys officially came to an end on Tuesday when Eddy Alvarez announced his retirement at the age of 35.
Alvarez's career was remarkable from start to finish. There's the whole thing where he broke into baseball in the White Sox organization as an unsigned free agent with the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers at age 24 after winning a silver medal as a speed skater in 2014 Winter Olympics, and not only immediately proved himself to be a credible minor leaguer, but ended up reaching the majors with the Marlins at age 30.
But the perseverance on the other side of that story stood out to me as well. There were a number of occasions over the past few years where I'd see his name in a box score for Nashville, or Worcester, or Gwinnett, and think, "Wow he's still playing." And then he'd go and get called up by a big league club for a cameo or two.
Alvarez ended up playing in 894 minor league games despite the late start, and might've been good for 1,000 had the minor league schedule not been wiped out in 2020. The fact that he kept finding steady, gainful high-minors employment well into his mid-30s might not be the most incredible part of his athletic resume, but remembering back to 2014 and trying to gauge how legit he could possibly be, it's nearly as improbable as everything else.
Jacksonville 5, Charlotte 0
- Colson Montgomery and Tim Elko both were 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts.
- Bryan Ramos was 0-for-2 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Dru Baker went 0-for-3 with a strikeout.
- Fraser Ellard: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, 6 of 10 pitches for strikes.
- Tyler Schweitzer, still in relief: 2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, 1 WP, 21 of 32 pitches for strikes.
Notes:
*Corey Julks had Charlotte's only hit, which came in the third inning.
Chattanooga 3, Birmingham 1
- Rikuu Nishida went 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Ryan Galanie, 1-for-4 with a stolen base.
- Jacob Gonzalez was 1-for-4.
- DJ Gladney, 1-for-3 with a sac fly.
- Riley Gowens: 5.1 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 57 of 88 pitches for strikes.
Kannapolis 7, Hickory 2
- Ryan Burrowes and Abraham Nuñez both singled twice and struck out twice.
- Caleb Bonemer was 0-for-3 with a walk.
- Lyle Miller-Green went 2-for-4 with a strikeout.
- George Wolkow, 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Seth Keener: 4 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 1 HR, 43 of 76 pitches for strikes.
ACL Royals 1, ACL White Sox 0 (7 innings)
- Adrian Gíl went 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts.
- Jurdrick Profar, 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Mathias LaCombe appeared in relief after Connor McCullough's rehab start: 2.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K.
DSL Mariners 1, DSL White Sox 0 (7 innings)
- Christian Gonzalez singled, walked and struck out twice.
- Yordani Soto was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and an HBP.
- Frank Mieses went 0-for-3 with a walk, strikeout and stolen base.
- Alejandro Cruz was 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Yobal Rodriguez: 4 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K
