Greatest 21 Days Baseball Profiles

Amid turmoil in his home country in 2003, Atlantic City Surf catcher Emison Soto talked up Venezuela's virtues to The Press of Atlantic City . "Venezuela is a beautiful country, and we never want to leave our country," Soto told The Press . "I never did, and I won't do it. I love my country." When Soto did leave, it was for baseball. He spent four seasons in the Red Sox system, making high-A. He later played in Mexico, Taiwan, independent ball, along with at home in Venezuela. Soto's Red Sox career began in 1990, signed by Boston as a free agent out of his native country. Ahead of signing, he helped his Venezuela squad to a win with a home run in the 1989 Big League World Series tournament over host team Broward All-Stars, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel wrote . "He threw me a fastball a little high in the strike zone," Soto told The Sun-Sentinel through an interpreter of is home run.  Soto started with the Red Sox in the rookie Gulf Coast L...