Local baseball player in minors just can’t seem to get away from
natural disasters
In his first year of pro baseball, Chris Gimenez tore it up for his championship team in Single-A. The 2001 Gilroy High graduate so impressed the parent Cleveland Indians organization that he’s currently at a selective instructional league down in Florida.
So if you’re a Gilroy native, you should be proud of this latest hometown-kid-turned-success-story.
You just shouldn’t go near him.
“I know I wouldn’t,” Gimenez said.
After all, there’s a decent chance you might get hit by a baseball. Or a street light. Or any other random object that might cause you harm.
Heard of being at the right place at the right time?
Well, it seems Gimenez has a knack for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Natural disaster or otherwise, the 21-year-old always seems to be in the path of something.
“Who knows?” Gimenez said. “People say I’m just a magnet for that kind of stuff.”
The people are right.
Start with baseball. During his last season at the University of Nevada-Reno, he led the Western Athletic Conference in hit-by-pitches (26).
Then this summer, while playing 71 games with the Indians’ farm club in Mahoning Valley, Ohio, Gimenez set a New York-Penn League record by being hit 25 times.
“I don’t know how I do it,” Gimenez said with a laugh. “I guess I’ve perfected the art of being hit.”
It’s not just during the games, though. Gimenez said he gets hit all the time while not paying attention during batting practice.
“Not long ago I got nailed right in the kidneys while I was talking to one of the instructors at third base,” he said. “Everybody was like, ‘Gee, that’s odd … Gimenez got hit again.'”
Said his mother, Pam Gimenez: “Everybody’s heard of being a babe magnet … well, Chris is a ball magnet.”
But that isn’t the only thing that treats Gimenez as a bull’s-eye.
Mother Nature has gotten her shots in, as well.
Just a day after Gimenez made his June arrival in Mahoning Valley, tornado sirens were there to greet him.
So not long after meeting his host family, Gimenez was huddling with them in a tiny area below a basement staircase as the twister touched down nearby.
“That was pretty crazy – my host dad had been through plenty of those and even he was worried,” Gimenez recalled.
“Not something I’d particularly like to do again.”
But as everyone knows by now, being stuck in Florida in September wasn’t any better.
The remnants of Hurricane Ivan had already affected Gimenez’s travel plans – torrential downpours in Ohio had delayed his team’s championship series for five straight days.
Then, at the same time Gimenez and a teammate were driving down to the Indians’ training facility in Winter Haven, Fla., Hurricane Frances decided to make her way through the state, too.
It wasn’t over.
Just a week or so later, Hurricane Jeanne looked determined to roll right through Winter Haven – and that’s when the worrying began on the other side of the country.
Both Gimenez’s girlfriend and mother suddenly became addicted to The Weather Channel.
“I remember freaking out watching the news when it was coming that way,” said Kellie Burton, who began dating Gimenez two years ago while they were both at Nevada.
“I called him and was like, ‘You have to get out! You get in a car right now and leave!'”
Back in Gilroy, the worries were only slightly more calm.
“It was a little nerve-wracking,” Pam Gimenez said. “I didn’t sleep well that night. I remember getting up and checking the TV a lot.”
As for Chris, he was holed up for two days with his fellow players in an underground clubhouse.
Luckily, a generator allowed for DVDs and an NCAA Football tournament on Xbox.
“And I think I learned every card game there is,” Gimenez said.
Although one was allowed to go outside, every once in awhile the players did take a peek.
“I’ve never seen wind like that in my life,” Gimenez said. “There were signs and little trees flying everywhere … street lights, too.”
During the chaos, a usually-calm lake nearby started generating gigantic waves and overflowed into the facility – half of the six fields are still underwater.
“It was really sad because the worst part of this one went right through Winter Haven,” Gimenez said. “The town was just demolished. And those people had already been through two of those.”
As for Gimenez, who grew up in Gilroy and remembers plenty of earthquakes from his childhood, he has now experienced all three of the major types of natural disaster.
“Wherever I go I just can’t seem to catch a break,” said Gimenez, who couldn’t help but laugh. “Somebody just has it out for me I guess.”
Rather than thinking about that black cloud that hovers around his head, though, Gimenez is just trying to make the best of it.
“I really don’t mind,” he said. “The way I look at it … I’ve been through it all now. And those are some experiences I can tell my kids and grandkids about.”
Just as long as they’re a safe distance away, of course.
