NEW YORK -- The legend of Sandy Leon begins in Maracay, a city in northern Venezuela near the Caribbean coast. It was there last October that Eddie Perez saw something almost nobody else did.
A former major league catcher and possible future manager, Perez was getting ready to manage Tigres de Aragua, a team in the Venezuelan winter league. He needed a catcher, so he made his one and only roster request to general manager Carlos Guillen, another ex-big leaguer: Please, Perez said, trade for Sandy Leon.
"I told Carlos, 'Look, I want this kid.