Perseverance is Undefeated
Meet Bryan Torres, who waited 11 years to call himself a Major Leaguer, and made the most of it.
Dear Readers: This one is for paid subscribers — the pieces I write between Saturdays, whenever a story finds me and won't let go. Free subscribers get every Saturday post without exception. If you want everything else too, here's how to join us.
Bryan Torres began his professional baseball career during the Obama administration. He was 17 years old. He signed with the Milwaukee Brewers out of Academia Cristiana Elohim High School in Puerto Rico, and reported directly to the Dominican Summer League.
A small kid with the same outsized dreams that every young player has when they sign with a big-league organization, Torres had no idea about the arduous road he was about to embark on. It wasn’t so much long and winding as it was endless. Or so it seemed. His 11-year odyssey through the minors, Caribbean leagues and independent ball spanned three organizations, 913 games, 3,174 at-bats, and 1,006 hits. His stops included Helena, Montana, Springfield, Missouri and two years in Franklin, Wisconsin, where he played in an independent league for the Milwaukee Milkmen. With the Milkmen, he hit .370 one season, .374 the other.
You couldn’t blame him for wondering, What else do I need to do?
“I’m not going to lie, at one moment, I thought I’d retire,” Torres said. “In that moment, I said I’m gonna give myself a chance. I’m gonna do that 100%, like everything I can. And I just didn’t give my 100, I gave my 200%.
