ATLANTA -- How do you become the only Major League player to be born and raised in Honduras?
Mauricio Dubón will tell you it took both a loving biological mother’s willingness to let him chase his dream elsewhere and the incredible support he continues to receive from the United States family that has made him one of its own.
“It’s an amazing story,” Dubón’s U.S. mother, Sandy Ritchey, said. “He cried and cried when he first came [to the U.S.]. He was homesick. He was just this scrawny little 15-year-old. But he had a dream, and he made that dream happen.”
Dubón is a two-time Gold Glove Award winner, a World Series champion (with the 2022 Astros) and one of the most valuable members of this year’s Braves team. None of this would have been possible had he not struck an immediate bond with Ben Ritchey, a talented pitcher who was 15 when he and his father, Andy, traveled to Honduras with a church group in 2010.
“We were doing these baseball clinics and out of the hundreds of kids, Mauricio just walked up to me and said, ‘Can you take me back with you?’” Ben Ritchey said.
The group arrived Sunday, and by Wednesday, Dubón’s biological mother, Jeannette Dobaldo, was asking Andy Ritchey about the possibility of him taking her son back to Sacramento, where his baseball talents might be noticed.
Soccer reigns in Honduras. It is not among the Latin American countries that draws baseball scouts.
Sandy Ritchey approved of the impromptu move once her husband convinced her Ben and Mauricio would continue to get along. So, by Saturday, six days after meeting each other, the two teenagers were heading back to California together, where they would share a bedroom and countless baseball experiences together at Capital Christian High School and for the Sacramento State summer travel team.
“I knew if I stayed in Honduras, I would not be able to do what I wanted to do,” Dubón said. “I felt like this was my chance to come [to the U.S.] They trusted me and I trusted them. It happened quickly.”
Dubón played baseball in California during the summer of 2010, went to Honduras for the school year and returned to Sacramento the following summer looking like a completely different player, one that drew the attention of scouts and college coaches.
“He really wasn’t very good at first,” Ben Ritchey said. “I mean, he was OK. Then he went back to Honduras, and he must have really trained and put his head down to get better. He came back that next year, and he was truly different.”
Dubón’s determination to succeed paid dividends during his junior season at Capital Christian. When he wasn’t impressing with his glove or teaming up with Ben to pick runners off at second base, he was showing improved offensive potential. He caught the attention of Red Sox scout Demond Smith when he homered, tripled and doubled while playing a game at Sutter Health Park, the current home of the A’s.
Sacramento State’s coaches were so impressed they tried to prevent him from being noticed by other coaches. While he played on their summer travel team, they limited his time as a shortstop. Their attempt to get him to play collegiately paved the road for Dubón to gain his current distinction as one of the game’s most skilled versatile defensive players.
While playing a variety of positions during the summer leading to his senior year of high school, Dubón developed the skills that led to him being recognized as the American League’s top defensive utility player with the Gold Gloves he was awarded in 2023 and ‘25.
“I’m just so proud of him,” Sandy Ritchey said. “When he was in high school, he said, ‘I want to make it big.’ I told him, ‘You’re going to make it big and regardless of what happens, you’ll always be my son.’”
When the Red Sox took Dubón in the 26th round of the 2013 MLB Draft, some suggested he pass on the $70,000 signing bonus and attend junior college. But he didn’t hesitate to sign. He had gambled on himself when he left his friends and family behind just three years earlier. There was no way he was passing on this chance to move closer to his dream.
“He’d say, ‘I’m afraid to go back to Honduras. This has got to work for me,’” Sandy Ritchey said. “I said, ‘It’s going to work for you.’ I never told him it wouldn’t.”
All of that encouragement paid off in 2019, when the Brewers promoted Dubón to the Majors for the first time. His first call went to Sandy, his U.S. mom, and the second went to his actual mother, who immediately boarded a plane and made it to Pittsburgh’s PNC Park to see a debut she helped create by allowing her son to go to a foreign country to live with strangers who helped him chase his dream.
“It’s been pretty cool having everybody along the way,” Dubón said.