Jurickson Profar may be his own personal tooth fairy

By Ben Cosman

December 15, 2014

Included in the wildly interesting New York Times piece on Curacao's lineage of MLB players (fun fact: Curacao boasts roughly 1 MLB player per 21,000 residents) is an anecdote that suggests that Rangers prospect Jurickson Profar might be his own personal tooth fairy.

"If a ball strikes one - as it invariably does - it can fly off unpredictably. When Jurickson Profar, a shortstop in the Texas Rangers' system who has been ranked among baseball's top prospects, was a small boy playing at the picturesque Marchena Little League field, one such ball struck him in the mouth and knocked out a front tooth.

Profar was rushed to the hospital by his father, Chasmond Profar, but was back on the field within days, only to find the tooth amid the dirt."

In addition to walk-off heroics and boasting one of the best names in MLB, Profar is also in the business of finding his own teeth amidst the dirt and pebbles of the infield, days after it was jettisoned from his mouth. That's either incredibly lucky, or Profar is preternaturally drawn to teeth -- almost as if he has a magical connection to them.

No word yet on if he left himself 50 cents under his pillow, but we're going to assume that yes, he did.

The dental tidbit speaks to Curacao's ability to build defensive-minded infielders. With regards to the rocky infield dirt that claimed Profar's tooth, the Times explains:

"Those little rocks have helped produce some of the most talented middle infielders in baseball, softening their hands and honing their reflexes to react to the most unexpected of bounces."

And dentists, apparently.