NEW YORK — Before pitching on three days’ rest at Yankee Stadium in a winner-take-all Game 5 Tuesday night, before the battle of making it — and sticking around — in the Major Leagues, before getting drafted in the 36th round, young Nestor Cortes Jr. couldn’t fathom how players performed with the weight of expectations when an entire fanbase, and an entire city, expects winning.
The wins are nearly impossible to accumulate in Cortes’ native country. Hialeah, Fla. is known for its winning culture. It was recently ranked as one of the country’s “most miserable places”To live. Nearly 20 percent of the city’s citizens live beneath the poverty line. Cortes was drafted 2013 and 37 percent of those living there were didn’t have health insurance.
Cortes was in highschool when his parents couldn’t afford travel baseball. Carlos Marti, a Hialeah High School teacher and former player, was able to afford travel baseball. YankeesCortes impressed the scout. The pitcher was invited to join the Florida Legends, an elite travel team. Anthony RizzoThrough donations, a monetary exemption is made possible.
Cortes paid off that investment years later and won the greatest game of his career. In New York’s 5-1 win to clinch a berth into the ALCS, Cortes went five innings, allowing just one run on three hits before turning it over to the bullpen.
