American Latino Magazine Food and Beverage Edition | Page 8

Adrian is a Christian and engraved on
his bats is “PS 27:1” for verse 1 from
Psalm 27. Adrian has spoken about
his faith saying, “I don’t want to be
remembered in baseball, I want to be
remembered as a good witness for
Christ. ... I’m just trying to use this
platform to bring people to Christ.”
Both Adrian and his wife Betsy reside
in the San Diego community of La
Jolla. The couple created The Adrian and Betsy Gonzalez Foundation,
which is focused on empowering underprivileged youth in areas of athletics, education and health.
Edgar has played with the Tampa Bay
Devil Rays, Texas Rangers, Washington Nationals, Florida Marlins, St.
Louis Cardinals, San Diego Padres,
Yomiuri Giants in Japan, San Francisco Giants and is nowcurrently with
the Chicago Cubs franchise.
He married Cristina Lujan in 2003
and resides in the Eastlake Community of Chula Vista California.
Edgar Gonzalez on mindset,
discipline and competition.
ALM:
How influential were your parents in
the early days of your baseball education?

make it. I then tried out for South
Western College and made the team
but didn’t play. The following year
I went back to San Diego State and
made the team. It was that positive
reinforcement from my father and
brothers to never give up that made
the difference. I still wasn’t focused
or thinking of playing pro ball. It all
happened one step at a time.
ALM:
So how does the business of baseball
player work?
Edgar:
Our parents were there for everything
that we did on and off the field.
“I remember sometimes striking out
3 or 4 times and coming out of the
game with my head held down and
I clearly remember my dad saying
why does it matter, instead of getting
on my case saying “why are you not
hitting”? If you strike out 4 times it
only means you’re going to get better
next time. It was always turned into
a positive. Both my other brothers
Adrian and David all think the same.
We always try to turn everything
into a positive. Negativity get’s you
nowhere. There is always something
better around the corner if you stay
focused. Our father was never that

dad that got down on us for not doing
good. It was all part of a life lesson
that we apply today to everything we
do. The law of averages states that we
will do better next time.” says Edgar.
ALM:
Was there a point as a young man
where you felt you could compete at a
different level?
Edgar:
Actually no, I was just playing for
fun. Obviously we all have dreams
as young boys to play in the major
leagues, but to me that seemed unattainable. In high school I only
weighed 140 pounds and was not
drafted by a college. I walked on to
trials at San Diego State and didn’t

Edgar:
Scouts usually go to games and
monitor the progress of players, but it
really starts around the draft in June
of every year. That’s when they start
drafting people from the trials. The
first step is that they usually send you
to the minor leagues and there’s 6
levels, you have rookie ball, class A,
Double-A, Triple-A and so on. They
bring you up as you progress or if
players get injured.
ALM:
At what point in your baseball career
did you start thinking of diversifying
into other businesses?

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Edgar:
Both my brothers and I owned a
baseball-training academy in Chula
Vista. It’s my passion to help kids, but
the reality was that Adrian and myself
were not spending enough time at the
academy because we were both playing ball at the time and the business
suffered financially so we decided to
shut it down. But beyond the money
it wasn’t fair to the kids that enjoyed
coming to the center. That business
is very technical in nature and if it’s
going to have the Gonzalez name, it
needs be the best. It wasn’t fair for my
brother David to run the day-to-day
operations. With Adrian playing for
the Los Angeles Dodgers, David serving the community and running for
office and my busy schedule with the
Chicago Cubs it would make it tough
to give it quality time without killing
ourselves by over working and never
seeing our families. As you know a
baseball player’s life is on the road a
lot. That can take a toll on your body
and mind. ]