Yunel Escobar will take the naturalization test to become a United States citizen Thursday in Miami. The Angels third baseman left camp Wednesday morning with the team’s approval and is expected back Friday.
“He wants to become a U.S. citizen,” Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said. “Especially with his background of how he got to this country, he feels connected with it.”
Aspiring to support his family by playing professional baseball in the United States, Escobar escaped baseball-mad Cuba in September 2004 at the age of 21. The passage was arduous. He told the Washington Post he and a group of his close friends had to hike through a jungle, cross a 400-foot-wide river and travel by boat to Florida over three days, with sharks circling.