A parade back from the airport? The party is on when international MLB players go home

Imagine coming home from work to a parade that’s dedicated solely to you.

Picture your hometown being so invested in your hard work that it’s prepared to shut down the city and line the streets when you get your biggest promotion. No one cares about holding up traffic. No one is worried about their own jobs. The only thing that matters is celebrating you.

Even the biggest athletes from America wouldn’t receive that kind of welcome after coming home from a long season. They’d simply celebrate with their closest friends and family, just like the rest of us. But once you head outside of the United States, everything changes.

You don’t have to be the biggest star. You don’t even have to play for an entire MLB season. If you make it to the big leagues, you’re instantly a star. Former Guardians outfielder Oscar Gonzalez is a perfect example of that.

He had created a name for himself just from his walk-up music, which was the theme song from "SpongeBob SquarePants." He had the biggest moment of his career when he launched an extra-innings, walk-off homer for the Guardians in the 2022 AL Wild Card Series. But Cleveland was eliminated in the next round, and it was easy to forget the heroic moment for most. But not for his hometown.

When he landed in the Dominican Republic, everyone in the airport sang the "SpongeBob" theme song in Spanish. He rode on top of his car from the airport to his childhood home as people lined the streets screaming for him. There was a Bikini Bottom poster hanging in his house when he walked into the living room.

“It was just like seeing my hometown all together rooting for me,” Gonzalez reflected, with a sense of pride.

This is a regular occurrence for a lot of international players. Seattle’s Julio Rodríguez returned to his town of Loma de Cabrera in the Dominican Republic after winning the AL Rookie of the Year Award that same year. He stood with his head out of the sunroof of a black SUV as fans honked and cheered through the streets. The night was capped with dancing to live music on a stage in front of a huge crowd.

Each year, Tampa Bay’s Jose Caballero is greeted at the airport in Panama by friends, family and a drum band to welcome him back to his hometown. Cincinnati’s Elly De La Cruz posted a picture on his Instagram account after the 2023 season, sitting on top of a car in his welcome home parade in the Dominican Republic as young boys in baseball hats with gloves ran alongside him. Jurickson Profar, who just signed with the Braves, said he experiences similar treatment when he goes back to Curaçao. So much of North American professional sports is made up of players from the U.S. and Canada. When players from other countries made up of small, humble towns find their way to the biggest stage on televisions across the globe, it’s special.

These players have to jump through extra hoops just to have a chance at making their dreams come true. Those who watched them as kids understood what it took to get there. They see how difficult it can be to come from their humble beginnings. And when someone down the street proves it’s possible, it’s a win for the entire town – not just the player.

“It’s such a small island, it’s easy to root for specific players,” Profar said. “It’s not the U.S. that has many, many [players]. We only have like maybe three, so it’s easier to root for us.”

This isn’t new, either. When Pedro Martinez was elected into the Hall of Fame in 2015, he returned to the Dominican Republic to celebrate. There, he walked out of the plane and saw a sea of friends, family members and adoring fans.

"I got a little sentimental coming out of the plane; that's how special it was," Martinez said at the time. "You could sense the pride of the people just proud of seeing their son make it to the highest level baseball can offer."

Martinez, too, had a parade. It’s a simple gesture that carries so much weight. It’s the idea that their town is so proud of them that everything has to be shut down for a few hours to express all the love they can. It’s a sense of pride and appreciation that’s so rare in today’s world.

And the players don’t take a second of it for granted.

"That was my biggest gift," Martinez said. "You could choose whatever game, whatever situation, whatever award. I would never get such a big award as that one."