Dominican outfielder pursues American Dream

In center field, No. 33 is cracking jokes with his leftfielder - a former minor-leaguer - in their native Dominican Spanish.

Not that Wander Nuñez isn't into the game; it just comes so easily to him.

The next pitch is a single up the middle, and Nuñez fields it cleanly in the rough grass, then throws a strike to third base to keep the runner at first from getting that far.

At the plate, in his second at-bat, the 19-year-old is fooled by a curveball but still crushes the pitch, depositing the ball over the centerfielder's head. The fence is a good 500 feet away, and it would have been a home run at any other ballpark, but at Camden's Malandra Hall Field, it rolls through a netless soccer goal to the metal fence.

Nuñez speeds around the bases, losing his helmet as he rounds second and reaching third before the centerfielder even gets to the ball, and almost catches up to the runner ahead of him. From there, it's an easy jog for the inside-the-park home run.

Nuñez has been displaying his all-around five-tool talent this summer against older, more experienced competition in the Tri-County League and the Tri-State National Adult Baseball Association. He just hopes the Phillies have been watching.

On June 11, Nuñez got a phone call with the news he had waited for since he first pulled on a baseball glove in the Dominican Republic - a major-league baseball team was willing to give him a chance.

The Phillies had selected him on the last day of the draft, in the 48th round, 1,457th overall.

"Esto ha sido mi sueño," he said simply, his big baseball bag - with the Dominican flag and Dominicana scrawled on it - hanging off his shoulder.

Nuñez, whose favorite player is countryman Manny Ramirez, thought this was his opportunity to live his Sueño Americano - his American Dream. He didn't expect a circuitous route through the American system.

"I felt great emotion because I didn't know that the Phillies were going to pick me," Nuñez, who lives above his brother's bodega in Northeast Philadelphia, said in Spanish. "To have my hometown team pick me felt really good."

The chance of a draft pick's making the majors gets slimmer the later one is selected. For every Mike Piazza - who was selected in the 62d round - there are thousands who never get a shot at the Show. Nuñez isn't deterred.

"My mom always tells me I'm going to make it because I work hard, and this is what I've wanted to do all my life," said Nuñez, who had tried out for Washington and expected the Nationals to draft him.

Nuñez, who turned 19 on June 27, immigrated to the United States when he was 12, settling with his father, Cristino, in Orlando, Fla. Less than a year later, Wander (pronounced JUAN-day) Nuñez moved to Philadelphia to live with his half-brother, Nelson Cagral, who had bought space for his Almonte Mini Market in Feltonville, a neighborhood that is home to many Latinos. The two-story building has the small convenience store - packed with American and Latino goods along narrow aisles - on the first floor and their two-bedroom apartment on the second.

Nuñez's father, who moved to Philadelphia in 2005 and has his own grocery store nearby, had brought his son with him to America for a better life. Having left his mother and two younger brothers in the Dominican Republic, Wander pursued his sueño from day one.

For more than four years, his life consisted of working behind the counter and stocking shelves at the corner store and training at a dusty baseball field in Hunting Park. Going to school - which he admitted didn't come easy - wasn't in the picture. And those around him allowed him to stay out of the classroom.

"Ever since I got to this country, my goal has been to play pro baseball, nothing else," Nuñez said.

"He never liked school," his father added.

By all accounts, the 5-foot-11, 180-pound outfielder is an impressive hitter, using a wooden bat - not the batter-friendly aluminum ones used by just about everyone else at the amateur level. But until he enrolled at Frankford High School last fall, Nuñez had not attended school in the United States. He still is far from fluent in English.

That has left him in the middle of a tug-of-war between a local baseball agent and a fellow Dominican whom Nuñez considers a father figure. Each believes he should be directing the talented teen.

The agent, Brian McCafferty, heard about Nuñez last year from Alberto "Pucho" Vega, who first saw Nuñez playing on a field with friends in South Jersey. Vega was so impressed that he added Nuñez to the two adult summer teams he coaches. It was the first legitimate competition Nuñez had faced in the United States.

"He played in a league against all pro players, and he was only 17 years old," Vega said. "He jacked one out in his first at-bat off a pitcher who was in the minors."

McCafferty is credited with getting Nuñez into school and generating interest from major-league scouts. Among the players he represents is Josh Zeid, a Tulane righthander who was the Phillies' 10th-round pick this year.

"When I saw him play for the first time, he jacked a couple out," McCafferty said. "I took a step back. I had never seen a kid his age hit like that with a wooden bat against high-level pitching. I told him, 'It's not going to be easy, but I think I can get you signed.' "

In May, Nuñez helped Frankford High reach the Public League baseball semifinals, hitting .576 with five home runs. He was named to the big-school all-state team of the Pennsylvania High School Baseball Coaches Association. Because he is 19, he no longer can play baseball for Frankford in the PIAA.

"I firmly believe that had he been a four-year high school player and had taken normal classes, he would have gone far higher and taken more money," Frankford coach Juan Namnun said.

Like McCafferty, Benancio "Pichón" Garcia believes that he has the player's best interests at heart.

Garcia, who immigrated in 1994, has what he calls a baseball academy based at his modest home in Northeast Philadelphia, and a rundown baseball field in Hunting Park with no grass or outfield fence. A former pro player in the Dominican, Garcia started the academy in 2004.

Under Garcia, Nuñez trained and progressed. He spent afternoons working on the diamond with Garcia - and more than 20 others ages 7 to 22 - and in the gym with Abel "Santo" Hernandez, a fellow Dominican and family friend.

Soon, Nuñez was spending much of his time with Garcia and his son Benshell, 20. Garcia introduced Nuñez to Danny Martinez, a Spanish-language radio broadcaster for the Phillies who was a 1977 draft pick of the team.

"Danny has been someone I look up to," Nuñez said. "He was in a situation like mine before, and he's been a good friend."

Garcia and Martinez want Nuñez to sever ties with McCafferty and go with an agent recommended by Martinez. If the Phils don't make an offer or if Nuñez believes the offer isn't good enough, Martinez wants him to attend a junior college.

"I want him to sign, and he's just waiting on the Phillies," Garcia said in Spanish. "But if the Phillies don't sign him, he can't stay in the area and not play. He needs a backup and somewhere where he can develop."

Although Nuñez's English is poor and he just completed his only year of high school, junior college is a possibility. If he goes that route, he would be eligible for the 2010 draft.

Martinez said that Western Oklahoma State College, where Benshell Garcia, the notorious Little League World Series star Danny Almonte, and other Latinos play baseball, might be an option.

Nuñez wouldn't need a General Education Development (GED) certificate to play baseball at Western Oklahoma State, according to coach Kurt Russell. He would have to provide a high school transcript and take 12 hours of classes a week in his first semester, which could include Spanish and English as a Second Language courses.

If he became academically eligible, Nuñez could be scouted by all 30 major-league clubs, according to Russell, who saw Nuñez this summer when he was in town to scout another player who trains with Garcia.

"I'm just waiting on the Phillies," Nuñez said. "I don't know what I'm going to do if they don't sign me - I haven't thought about it."

According to his father, he will attend school only if he believes it will enhance his baseball future.

McCafferty doesn't see college as a viable option and wants to get Nuñez in the Phillies' fold as quickly as possible for a four-figure signing bonus, then sent to Clearwater, Fla., to play for the Phils' Gulf Coast League team.

"The sooner he gets under some pro coaching and away from the distractions here, the better," said McCafferty, noting that Nuñez could still use work at the plate. "He needs to get away from all this and just get signed."

McCafferty had promised Nuñez last year that if he listened to him, he would be signed or drafted. He took Nuñez to a tryout in Middletown, Conn., where he qualified for the Northeast regional team at the East Coast Pro Showcase in Lakeland, Fla., last August. In his four days in Lakeland, on a team with Mike Trout, a Millville native and first-round pick of the Los Angeles Angels, he impressed scouts.

The scouts told McCafferty it was too late to sign him for the season and suggested that Nuñez attend school to face the competition.

So, for the first time in his six years in this country, Nuñez went to school. He took freshman-level and English as a Second Language classes and excelled in his one season on the diamond at Frankford.

His father credits McCafferty for his son's getting drafted.

"He took him to Florida, he put him in school, so I am grateful to Brian," Cristino Nuñez said. "Danny Martinez and Benny helped him out - that I won't deny - but where Wander is right now, I give that [credit] to Brian."

Phillies scouts attended a few of his games. The club has until Aug. 17 to sign him and said it would continue to scout the prospect, including a workout at Citizens Bank Park on Aug. 13, according to McCafferty.

"We're going to follow his summer, go to some of his games, and track his progression," said Rob Holiday, the Phillies' assistant director of scouting.

Eric Valent, the club's Northeast scout and a former big-league outfielder, said Nuñez has the "tools. He's got power and has been using a wooden bat, which is always good. And he's got good speed."

On days when he doesn't have a game, Nuñez said, he plays baseball from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., then heads to the gym until 5 p.m.

"This is a full-time job, like any other one," he said. "And to achieve what you want, you need to put the time in."

But time is running out.

"It's getting close," McCafferty said of the looming signing deadline. "I'm just trying to get the Phillies to give this kid a chance."

No matter what happens, Nuñez will not end the pursuit of his elusive sueño.