PEDRO G. BRICENO
In one of those stages of life, Henry Arias worked in a lottery bank and just as he opened the establishment, his then little son Roderick was hand in hand with him, who spent long hours watching him work and play around the business.
It was a time of certain shortcomings for the Arias-Germáns, who by then could not have imagined that God would have a great prize in store for them, for which they only had to make an effort to develop their son, who had a kind of innate talent for baseball.
For about four years, Henry was selling numbers and his son, who wasn’t in school yet when he wasn’t watching him, would hang around him catching or batting a ball.
His father knew of the sacrifice and effort they had to make to push his son forward, first in the Estrellas de los Frailes League where he played in the neighborhood and then when he was 11 years old they took him to this town in San Pedro de Macorís to explore at the Paulino Baseball Academy.
For Henry, first and Roderick himself, the distance of about 100 kilometers that separates the Friars from the so-called Sultana del Este did not matter, since both felt delighted with the work system that prevailed in the Academy.
“God has been our guide, and of course there have been many moments of sacrifice involved, since Roderick was little he was very restless and interested in playing baseball and on our part we focused on providing him with all possible support,” said Arias who opened the doors of his home for the Listín Diario.
From the outset he admits that there were difficulties, his wife Nairobi Germán, a physical education teacher, had to go to school to work and then the care of the minor Roderick for a long time was left in the hands of the father, who then had to take him to the bank. lottery owned by cousins.
“ I spent a lot of time on the bench, sometimes I went outside and there I started to play and hit with a small bat, that’s when I began to realize the appreciation I had for baseball and since it is a sport that I love, it didn’t take long to give it their first steps,” says Henry, a recent graduate teacher of mathematical and physical sciences.
Already at the age of six, the boy was enrolled in the Frailes Star League, directed by Andrés Galvá and in which he remained until a pitching instructor named Valenzuela recommended sending him to the Paulino Baseball Academy, already 12 years old, where they were fascinated.
They stayed in the complex despite the fact that the transfer from Los Frailes to San Pedro de Macorís was a great challenge in every way for the tutors, who parted ways with their eldest son. The marriage has another offspring, named Masuell, 10 years old, who is also emerging as a future signer for baseball.
“Not everything was rosy, sometimes we had difficulties to take the purchase with food to San Pedro”, narrates Nairobi, who does not hesitate to say that they had to borrow money to be able to comply.
He adds that when they came to San Pedro to watch his boy play they had to bring something in their hands. “There were many times when things became difficult,” says Germán.
His son Roderick has already stated that his first major acquisition will be a home for his parents. They currently reside in a home in this town, although in a residential complex under construction, but whose streets are in very poor condition.
There came a time, in 2019, when the parents had to move from Los Frailes to San Pedro and that was also part of an arduous sacrifice, even Henry had to leave a job at Isotec Dominicana to move to the East, as did his wife .
KNOW MORE
BY RODERICK ARIAS
Signature and favorite player
The shortstop’s deal was for 4.0 million with the Yankees and his admiration is Wander Franco, for the great effort he shows to progress.
where to go
He doesn’t think twice and would like to be something similar to what Derek Jeter was with the Yankees, because he loves to think big.
Pocos tryout
He has so many qualities that he wasn’t the prototype of a player who did a lot of tryouts to sign.
Interested teams
Although without mentioning the names, his instructor Daniel Paulino said that about a dozen teams wanted his services, including some with larger proposals.
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