JUPITER, Fla. • Many of Derian Gonzalez’s childhood friends in Venezuela began playing organized baseball when they were 3 or 4 years old. Those teams were part of the fabric of the Cardinals prospect’s neighborhood, but he wouldn’t join them until much later.
Gonzalez could only watch as his friends went off to play on their teams. His parents didn’t register him for a team until he was almost 11. Until then, his baseball experience was limited to street ball with a rubber ball.
Gonzalez may have been behind most of the other boys in terms of fundamentals and game awareness, but he was no neophyte when he finally joined because he had refined his skills through a true love of the game.