LOS ANGELES.- When he takes the field on Friday against the Dodgers of Shohei Ohtani, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. will not only lead Toronto in its first World Series in three decades, but will enhance one of the most notable family legacies in baseball.
The star of the Tiles He keeps alive in his memory how he saw his father, the Dominican, when he was 11 years old. Vladimir Guerrerolive your only chance in the final of the Major Leagues of 2010.
Their Texas Rangers They then fell before the Saint Giants Francisbut the lack of a title did not tarnish Guerrero’s path to the Hall of Fame.
Now it is his son “Vladdy” who pursues a feat that puts him on the route to Cooperstown, where no father-son pair has yet been immortalized.
With a dream playoffs, Guerrero Jr. is largely responsible for the World Series being back in Canada, the country where he was born in 1999 when his father was a figure in the Montreal Expos.
With six home runs in a single postseason, the Dominican-Canadian slugger has equaled the record for total home runs in the playoffs for a Toronto player, which they shared Joseph Bautista and Joe Carter.
Guerrero Jr. bombed the first New York Yankees with three home runs in four games, erasing the historic dominance of the “Bronx Bombers” over Toronto.
Then he punished the Seattle Mariners with another triple of home runs in a Championship Series resolved on Monday in a dramatic seventh game, in which Guerrero Jr. was elected Most Valuable Player (MVP).
“I have seen every sacrifice, every training, every tear. Today seeing him be MVP is the reward for all that. You are great, son!” his father enthusiastically congratulated him on Instagram.
“I don’t want to be better than him”
For Guerrero Jr., his entire career was based on the example of greatness he had at home.
“I don’t want to be better than my dad, I want to be just like him,” the player clarified a year ago in an interview with Abriendo el Podcast.
“If I put up the same numbers I’m going to be in the Hall of Fame, why else?” he said.
“Everyone told me that I was going to be better, but the only thing I gain from that is telling my dad that I was better, and I don’t want to do that,” he said. “He was the person who inspired me, the first one who gave me a bat and a ball in my hand, and he is the person I admire.”
Guerrero Jr. already has five selections for the All-Star Game and, at 26 years old, he has time to reach the nine that his father obtained until he hung up the bat in 2011.
He lived many more curves to lead the Blue Jays back to the World Series since their only two titles in 1992 and 1993.
The ultimate challenge
Guerrero Jr. signed his first contract with the Blue Jays in 2015, when he was 16 years old, and when he debuted in the Majors in 2019 he was already one of the biggest prospects in baseball.
His first seasons were solid, but in the playoffs he did not win a single game in the 2020, 2022 and 2023 wild card series.
Still, Guerrero Jr. and the Blue Jays united their futures earlier this year by agreeing to a monumental 14-season, $500 million extension.
Established as a symbol of baseball in Canada, the striker pushed the Blue Jays to first place in the American League and, with the resurrection of George Springeruntil the return to the long-awaited Fall Classic.
“I was born here and raised in the Dominican Republic. From the moment I signed, I knew I was going to be here my entire career,” said Guerrero Jr. “I always said the challenge is to bring the World Series back to Canada.”
To climb the last step, Guerrero Jr. and the Blue Jays will meet the worst possible rival, Ohtani’s Dodgers.
Led by the Japanese star, protagonist last week of one of the best performances in history, the current champions have been sweeping these playoffs with nine wins in 10 games, a record that does not intimidate Guerrero Jr.
“I know they have great players, but so do we,” he recalled. “On the field is where everything matters.”
