TROY – Tri-City ValleyCats pitcher Rafi Vazquez quit baseball two years ago during his senior year of college at Charlotte.
He moved to Tempe, Ariz., to be with his girlfriend, an Arizona State student. Vazquez worked as an Uber Eats delivery driver.
A conversation with his father, Rafael, changed his life.
“I was like, ‘I hate the normal life,’ ” Vazquez said. “I didn’t even have a real job, just Uber Eats. I was like, ‘I hate this. It’s not who I am.’ And my Dad convinced me. He’s like, ‘Hey, you have all this talent. You’ve worked so much up to this point. Why would you give it up right now? It’s like all the things you did for the past 20 years means nothing if you give it up right now.’ “
Vazquez, a first baseman at Charlotte, took his father’s advice but changed his approach. He switched back to pitching. He hadn’t pitched since junior college five years ago in South Carolina.
The move has worked out beautifully so far with the ValleyCats. In two starts with Tri-City, Vazquez has allowed one run in 14 innings with 11 strikeouts and two walks. He earned his first victory Sunday, throwing a three-hit shutout in a 4-0 victory over the Washington Wild Things in the seven-inning opener of a doubleheader.
“I felt like it was a quicker route to make it to the big leagues as a pitcher, and I was always a good pitcher,” Vazquez said. “I just had a little rough go and I scrapped (pitching) in general and I had more of a love for hitting, if that makes sense. Everyone loves to hit and do the position-player thing. I just felt like it was a quicker route for me to go back to pitching.”
Vazquez, a 6-foot-1 right-hander, made his pro debut last year in the United Shore Professional Baseball League, an independent league based in Michigan.
ValleyCats manager Pete Incaviglia said he saw Vazquez, 25, pitch at an Arizona…
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