Who is Johan Santana?

Major league baseball pitcher Johan Alexander Santana was born 13 March 1979 in Tovar, Venezuela. His father, Jesus, played semi-professional baseball as a short stop. His main professiona was an engineer. The first time Johan Santana tried out for yourth baseball, the coach told him he was dressed inappropriately and sent him home. The next day when Johan returned, he was wearing his father's baseball jersey and his coach knew who Jesus Santana was and treated Johan better after that. As a teen, Johan Santana played center field for the local team, the Chiquilines. Professional baseball scouts did attend Chiquiline games and Johan was soon pursued by the Houston Astros and the Colorado Rockies. Both teams ended up offering Santana the opportunity to join their clubs and Johan signed on with the Houston Astros at the age of sixteen in 1995. The next year, the seventeen year old Santana was playing in the Astro's Dominican Summer League team as a relief pitcher. At age eighteen, Johan ...  more