Yonder Alonso was 10 when he and his younger sister, Yainee, were uprooted from their home in Cuba and brought with their parents to live in the United States.
Their father, Luis, had been a catcher for Havana’s Industriales of Serie Nacional, then coached after an arm injury curtailed his time as a player. He and his wife, Damarys, made the difficult decision to leave the past behind and head for Florida and new opportunities.
“We were leaving everything behind,’’ Alonso said Wednesday in the A’s spring training camp, of what was a scary time.
It turned out they brought one thing with them.