September 24, 2023

By Melissa Verge

Canadian Baseball Network

There are many directions his life could go, but a 19-year-old Ricky Romero only sees one.

Baseball.

When other kids were sleeping with teddy bears as toddlers, Romero opted for a baseball bat. And while his classmates at Cal State Fullerton are content with student life, the young athlete has his heart set on a career in baseball.

So when the left-hander is drafted his junior year, there’s no hesitation. He drops his kinesiology studies in favour of throwing 95-mph fastballs.

It’s a chilly day in April 2009 when he makes his MLB debut for the Toronto Blue Jays. The temperature barely hits double digits in the city, but Romero’s fastball brings the heat for the fans at Rogers Centre. He gives up two runs over six innings to the Detroit Tigers, and a small crowd of just over 15,000 are there to witness his first MLB win.

That marked the start of five seasons in the majors for the pitcher from East LA. The now retired 38-year-old is content with how his life in baseball turned out, but the student life he gave up 18 years ago at Cal State Fullerton is unfinished.

He’s now a father of three - Sebastian, Diego, and Soleil, and a husband to Kara, an Olympic soccer player from Canada. He’s a coach, and a son. And starting in the spring, he’ll proudly add a new title to that - student - when he resumes his studies at Cal State Fullerton.

Like most of the decisions he makes daily, his biggest motivator in deciding to go back to school was his family, Romero said.

“When I look at the light at the end of the tunnel I think about my three kids and them seeing me in a cap and gown and walking on stage,” Romero said. “And being able to show them that ‘hey, you know that both mommy and daddy graduated college’ and just serve that as motivation for them.’”

An interest in the behavioral tendencies of people paired with a limited ability to attend the lab time with three kids that kinesiology requires, have pushed him towards sociology. He wants to better understand people in general, the world around him and most importantly, his kids.

Romero is confident with where he is, but it’s taken time getting to this point. Post retirement was a challenge, he said. His younger days were all about baseball, and figuring out which direction he wanted to go after hasn’t always been clear. He went back and forth with his academic counselor about two or three times, he said, thinking it was time to go back to study but it wasn’t quite right. But with his youngest, two-year-old Soleil now in school, it opened up an opportunity he wanted to take. He has around two-and-a-half years left at Cal State. That period will likely have some ups and downs as he juggles multiple responsibilities with parenting and being a student.

Dealing with highs and lows is everything baseball has prepared him for. At the highest point, Romero was an All-Star in 2011. He has the photo framed on the wall in his man cave alongside his debut jersey and All-Star jersey, and sometimes he’ll stop and take a look at it and reminisce. His future was bright, thousands of fans were behind him. The darkest times came after his knee surgeries eight weeks apart, not knowing if he was ever going to play baseball or even walk properly again.

That low time full of uncertainty both in his life and on the ball diamond left him depressed, wanting to isolate himself from the world.

“When I was struggling in baseball I wanted things to happen fast and I wanted things to just become better quick,” he said. “And when it wasn't happening I became sad and I became I would probably say depressed. And you become just, you don't want to see anybody, you don't want to talk to anybody and you're not yourself.”

Things went downhill for the pitcher, and his career finished before he would’ve originally anticipated, with his last stint in the majors in 2013. Now it’s been 10 years since his last game, and he’s at peace with it.

He spends the majority of his time in the small town of Hermosa Beach, Calif., where they live near the beach. And when the sand gets too hot, they spend holidays and half their summers in Port Credit, Ont.

Whenever he gets the chance, he watches the Jays play. On the West Coast, that starts just after 4 p.m. most days, which is prime kid time, he said, making it a bit of a challenge.

The biggest role baseball plays in his life is with his sons, as a coach for their baseball teams. He’s content with that, and he’s at peace with his retirement and his career in Toronto.

“I was blessed to play 13 years professionally and you know, spend four plus years in the big leagues, that to me equals success in my book for me,” he said. “And it didn't end the way I wanted it to, but you know it’s a cool story that I get to share with friends, with my kids, and stuff like that.”