Eddy Alvarez: Chasing History
Alvarez, the only Olympic Winter Games medalist to play Major League Baseball, this week became the third American and sixth athlete ever to medal in both the Winter and Summer Olympics.
By J.M. Casper
After speedskater-turned baseball player Eddy Alvarez made history in 2020, he was asked whether his biggest thrill was collecting his first Major League hit or standing on the podium with a silver medal around his neck.
“I always correct them,” said Alvarez, “and the reason why was because of the journey. The comparison is my first Major League hit or walking through Opening Ceremonies.” Alvarez’s biggest thrill was the patriotic fervor entering the arena with his American teammates at the Opening Ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, where he won silver with Team USA as a speedskater. Said Alvarez earlier this year: “The silver medal was the cherry on top … as a child, I always had a dream to make it to the Olympics.” Now he’ll have another.
Now baseball, the sport he put aside to pursue Olympic glory, then remastered, has gifted him the opportunity to relive his most significant moment while making history. Alvarez carried the American flag at the Opening Ceremony of the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics as the starting second baseman for the United States Baseball Team. When Team USA beat Korea 7–2 to advance to the finals, Alvarez became just the third American and sixth athlete ever to earn medals at the Winter and Summer Olympic Games.
The Cuban-American Alvarez became an overnight sensation when he collected his first Major League hit and went 3–4 with a double in his MLB debut against the Mets Jacob deGrom, widely considered the best pitcher on the planet. Alvarez, who won his silver medal in the 5,000-meter relay, is no stranger to chasing history. When Alvarez made his debut for the Miami Marlins in 2020, he became the first Winter Olympic athlete to play Major League Baseball. Alvarez and Jim Thorpe, often considered the greatest athlete, are the only Olympians who earned medals in another sport to play in the Major Leagues. Thorpe won gold in the decathlon and pentathlon in Stockholm in 1912 then played in both the NFL and MLB. Sprinter Ed “Cotton” Minahan finished fourth in the 60-yard dash in 1900 and played briefly for the Cincinnati Reds in 1907. That’s it. Alvarez was the first Olympian to play MLB in over a century and just the third ever.
“I saw my baseball career skyrocketing, but there was always something in the back of my head that was missing. That was trying to make it to the Olympics,” Alvarez said in early 2021. “I just wanted to go represent my country and my background and kind of finish the circle.”
Alvarez’s Olympic teammate Lauryn Williams became the first woman and the first African-American to accomplish the feat when she won a silver medal as a bobsledder in Sochi after winning gold at the 2012 London Olympics. Williams, who competed in four Summer Games as a sprinter, also won a silver medal at the 2004 Athens Games in the 100-meter dash. Eddie Eagan won gold as a boxer in 1920 and as a bobsledder in 1932.
“I tuned in specifically to see him carry the flag. I was excited to see that for my friend,” said Williams, who lives in Miami and uses the same trainer as Alvarez. “I’m not surprised at what he has done because I know Eddy to be a fun-loving and fearless person. I know he’s super pumped and excited to be in good company. It’s par for the course as it pertains to expectations we have on ourselves as athletes. … Eddy and I will be able to go down in history and be part of a legacy.”
After enduring quarantine while expecting his first child, the new father finally got the call he always dreamed of after the Miami Marlins were hit by a COVID-19 outbreak early in the truncated 2020 baseball season. It was the triumph of a six-year journey filled with adversity. The spring after Sochi, already older than many players in the Major Leagues, the 24-year-old signed a minor-league contract in 2014 and started from the bottom. Too old to be considered a baseball prospect, he toiled for five seasons in the Chicago White Sox organization before he was signed by the Marlins in 2019 and had a career year in AAA. He was finally eliciting notice by Marlins’ brass in 2020 when spring training was shut down due to COVID-19. Months later, he was a new father garnering national headlines as a 30-year-old rookie with the Miami Marlins.
“That was my true victory,” Alvarez said. “Baseball has been something that’s always been in my blood. It was just something I was bound to do no matter what. I was going to play baseball. The journey is a story in itself. At the Olympics, once I got there, it was more about the full experience and skating to the best of my ability. Whatever happens, happens. Baseball, once I got to the Major Leagues, I told myself, ‘Now it’s begun.’”
Alvarez turned down a college baseball scholarship to devote all his energy to speedskating and his Olympic dream. Alvarez was a rising star until knee surgery almost scuttled his Olympic aspirations and ended his career. Six months later, he competed at the 2012 U.S. Championships and finished third. In 2013, he helped the United States to a second-place finish at the Winter World Cup. At the Olympic trials, Alvarez qualified in four events. After he suffered falls in his first three individual events at the Sochi Games, the first Cuban-American male Olympic speedskater rebounded to earn silver in his final race at Sochi.
“I learned how to be an athlete,” Alvarez said. “I learned the true art of resiliency and grit. … I already went through the grind, the process, the peaks, and the valleys, you name it, to get to Olympics. It was almost like I went through pro baseball with a little bit of a cheat sheet because mentally, I was prepared.”
Alvarez hoped to make the Marlins in 2021 but was sent to the Marlins top minor league affiliate in Jacksonville. All part of the journey. There was a silver lining for the 31-year-old Alvarez — he was eligible to play with Team USA. After falling short in the 2019 Premier 12 qualifying tournament, USA Baseball was given another shot to qualify after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics were postponed. Only professional baseball players not on MLB rosters were eligible to compete. Team USA tapped Alvarez.
“I know that Eddy made [the Olympics] a priority this year, and I know the Marlins supported it,” said Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimps (Marlins-AAA) coach and former MLB star Phil Plantier, who was in Tokyo with USA Baseball in 2019. “He has a chance to complete a pretty amazing legacy, not that he hasn’t already. Being a player in the Major Leagues and winning an Olympic medal in a different sport that’s already an amazing accomplishment. He’s getting an opportunity right now to add to it.”
At the Olympic qualifying tournament played in Spring 2021, Alvarez made the most of his chance. After a game-saving catch in the first game, he started the final three and hit .273 with a .429 on-base percentage. All three of his hits were for extra bases. He had two doubles in Team USA’s win against the Dominican Republic and a triple in their win over Canada, which ensured a trip to Tokyo for Team USA. As the United States faced elimination, Alvarez was in the leadoff spot against Korea and had a hit and RBI. He has a hit in all but one game.
“I love the fact I am a Cuban American man who represented the United States in the Olympics. I was proud to wear the red-white-and-blue,” said Alvarez, who attributes his success to the bond he shares with his family, especially his grandmother, a Cuban immigrant. “This country gave opportunity, freedom, and a new beginning to my family. Receiving the medal on the podium [in Sochi] was almost like praising this country for giving this chance to them to then allow me to have those opportunities.”
Seats in the Olympic Stadium were empty, but none of the pomp was missing when people from all over the world watched Alvarez and basketball star Sue Bird wave the American flag for the entire American contingent, an honor bestowed by their fellow Olympians. It was a love of country and a love for speed that first led him to trade in his baseball spikes for a pair of skates.
“I don’t think anyone should be put into a box, nor should you allow yourself to be put into that box,” Alvarez insisted. “Do things that make you happy. If there’s something in your life that you feel like you need to chase, chase it.”
This time he chased Olympic glory in spikes and will have matching silvers or gold.
Joshua M. Casper is an author from Brooklyn, New York, who documents the intersection of history, culture, and sport. Links to his work can be at https://joshuamcasper.wordpress.com.
