a day ago
The Fife-raised ace on the brink of becoming baseball's latest star
Few have subsequently followed Thomson's path from Scotland into the Major League Baseball ranks but another contender now stands tantalisingly on the cusp of a call-up to The Bigs. Gabriel Rincones Jr's name and Hispanic good looks might not suggest a Caledonian hinterland but you only need to listen to him speak to realise how important his Scottish upbringing has been in leading him to this point.
Florida-born and Venezuela-raised, Rincones was six years old when his dad's job in the oil industry saw the family decant to Glenrothes. It was, unsurprisingly, something of a culture shock initially but his time there would prove formative in his development, most notably in learning English that he still speaks with a strong Fife lilt and lexicon that is as unexpected as it is charming.
'This is my natural accent but I've had to adapt it a bit or nobody over here would understand me,' he explains with a chuckle. 'But whenever I'm speaking to my little sister or some of my mates from Scotland I just switch back into it. If I don't they slag me off for sounding too American.'
Rincones was already baseball obsessed when he landed on these shores – his dad, also Gabriel, had been a minor league pitcher – making it something of a disappointment to learn that the game was not hugely popular in his new home, despite what the healthy sale of baseball bats might suggest.
He would go on to scratch that itch by turning out for the Edinburgh Cannons in the Scottish National Baseball League but it is the more traditional pastimes of swimming, boxing, judo and football that he remembers best from his time in Fife, as well as just hanging out with friends some of whom he is still in touch with today.
'I remember a lot from those days,' he says. 'In my first year there I couldn't speak any English and suddenly I was picking up English with this strong Scottish accent. That helped me make a load of new friends and really feel a part of things in Glenrothes.
'I missed baseball at the start but you had all this free time to do other things with your pals, like boxing, judo, swimming and football. One of the guys I did judo with, Chris Kumesu-Egri, went on to become a British champion.
'When I did start playing baseball over there, one of the founders of the league was Jason Dair [the ex-Dunfermline and Raith Rovers midfielder]. My dad would be off-shore for two weeks and then when he came back he'd drive us to Edinburgh on the Sunday morning and we would play. That helped scratch the itch a bit and stopped my mum from shouting at me to quit throwing the ball off the walls at home!
'Those were great days. I remember being back for a visit when I was 18 and chapping a door and asking, 'does Harry want to come out and play fitba?' And I was told Harry doesn't live there any more and he can't play fitba as he's got a job!'
Rincones' determination to make a career in baseball saw him return to the United States as a 13-year-old without his parents, moving in with an aunt in Florida and starting the process that has led to him now standing on the brink of baseball greatness.
His mum and dad, though, still have their house in Glenrothes, while his younger sister lives in Blair Atholl. 'And my big sister just had a bairn and lives in Norwich now,' he reveals.
There is talk of his empty-nester parents relocating to sunnier climes but Rincones hope that won't be the case. 'Scotland will always be a part of me,' he says. 'I told my parents not to sell the house as they've been talking about maybe moving to Italy. But I want to have that base at home for whenever I get a chance to get back there.'
Having turned down an approach from the San Diego Padres earlier in his career, Rincones was selected by the Philadelphia Phillies in the third round of the 2022 MLB draft. The outfielder has since advanced each year through the Phillies system to reach their Triple-A affiliate (the level just below the main team), the colourfully named Lehigh Valley IronPigs.
The 24-year-old admits this hasn't been his best season but an MLB debut could yet materialise in the near future. That could be with the Phillies – where he is rated as their 11th highest prospect overall - or with another club, with Rincones being mentioned as a possible trade piece ahead of baseball's equivalent of the transfer deadline day at the end of this month.
Joining the Phillies at spring training earlier in the year – where he hit three home runs – took him a step closer to realising his lifelong dream, even if the subsequent months have not panned out as hoped.
'It's been a season of a lot of learning and a lot of failure – some much-needed lessons,' he adds candidly. 'But slowly but surely I'm picking it up. That's the thing with baseball – you have to compete with what you've got and every day you won't be at your best. It's about finding a way to get through it.
'But being at spring training was barry, like. Being around those big league guys, interacting with them and having them cheer you on was honestly the best experience in my baseball career so far. That's given me a taste of it and hopefully I'll get that to experience that for real at some point. Anything is possible.
'Some of my team-mates have been given just a few hours' notice and told they need to be ready to start for the Phillies later that day. So, it can all happen in a flash. I just have to be ready for when my time comes. And I'm sure if I asked my old pals from Glenrothes to come out here for my debut whenever it happens, I've no doubt they would say yes.'
