Bee attitude: Athlete finds his faith on road from Tijuana to the big time
People wondered if anything good could come out of Nazareth. They wonder the same thing about Tijuana.
Well, it can.
Freddy Sandoval is from Tijuana.
And the Salt Lake Bees third baseman is good in many ways — he's a good hitter, with a smooth, quick stroke. He's a good neighbor, often donating time and energy to help kids and others looking for direction. And after hitting rock bottom a couple of years ago — when he handed his life over to God — Freddy Sandoval has tried heart and soul to be a good person.
"I took Freddy to a Little League event," says Hannah Lee, who handles media relations for the Bees. "He's great with the kids. He stresses they should stay in school. That's something very important to him. He loves to give things to them. He remembers what it was like being a kid in love with baseball."
It's a love affair that never died.
"As a boy, I lived for baseball," he says. "No basketball, no football, just baseball. I'd come home from school, do my homework and run off to play baseball."
Freddy's father was his first coach. A lifelong fan of Mickey Mantle, the elder Sandoval taught his boy to switch-hit, a skill that has served him well.
"The first time he batted left-handed, he hit a home run," the elder Sandoval says with pride.
Still, it almost goes without saying that any path that leads from Tijuana to the big time will have some switchbacks and rough patches. So it has been with Freddy. As a boy, his parents — along with his brother and three sisters — were able to steer him past the cliffs and drop-offs. But even then it was a trial. "It was tough growing up in Tijuana," Freddy says today." Even today I'm nervous about going back there. I was able to stay away from drugs and things when I was young, and sometimes they were close at hand."
Even though Freddy didn't speak English, Sandoval Sr. got him into Marian Catholic High School in San Diego, where he helped produce three championship teams. The University of San Diego was impressed and offered him a baseball scholarship. His junior year he was drafted by the Angels. Everything was coming up roses until — almost predictably — the ugly side of life surfaced. Away from home, the devil dropped his calling card at Freddy's door.
