Ronald Acuña finally got the opportunity to tell his story.
Ahead of the start of the 2024 season, superstar right fielder Ronald Acuña penned an article published in The Players' Tribune. He highlighted his journey from growing up in Venezuela and coming to America as a teen to becoming one of the best players in Major League Baseball.
"In his own words, he talks you through having a newspaper and a roll of tape. He and a couple of his buddies, to the tune of 65 kids, all they wanted to do was play ball in Venezuela," Sandra Golden said on The Steakhouse while reacting to the article. "He would sit with his buddies and they would make 20 tape balls and they'd go through them in one afternoon. Then they'd start over the next day."
To her, the look into his life was personal and heartfelt.
"Whatever you loved about Ronald Acuña, [this article] helped us fall in love all over again," she continued. "He was humble, he showed himself as a little kid getting screamed at by his mom because he'd be gone for 10 hours in a day because he was playing baseball... he felt guilty for having to ask mom for the change [to buy tape]."
After being identified as a prospect by the Braves organization, his story continued as a teenager in a foreign country where he didn't speak the language. Acuña had to learn, but had to do a lot of that on his own.
Then as a young major leaguer, he was often criticized for not running out fly-balls or losing a bit of his hustle when the team was down. For that, he apologized. He owned up to his shortcomings with maturity.
"This is from a 26-year-old Ronald Acuña [talking about what] he was doing at 20 and 21," she continued. "Just step back and see the maturity in this article alone, I mean, I always say 'What would you do differently?' He's already saying that you won't see that again."
Reading this article really touched Sandra. She says, "It made me love him even more."