Keeping His Eye on the Ball
For as long as he can remember, baseball has been the great passion of Anyersox Sequera Alvarez’s life. “I started playing baseball since I have memory, pretty much since I’m conscious,” Anyersox said through a translator.
His parents encouraged his baseball career when he was a child and then a teenager growing up in Venezuela. When threats of violence made it unsafe to live in his home country, he left behind the life he knew in Venezuela, moving temporarily to Peru. But he held tight to his love of the sport.
In February, Anyersox, 18, and his family arrived in Chattanooga. Though he was in a new country, a new city, and at a new school, he wasted no time in continuing to pursue his dream: to one day make it to the big leagues.
Just before their spring season started, Anyersox joined Red Bank High School’s baseball team, providing “a major boost” to the Lions, the Chattanooga Times Free Press wrote. “When Anyersox showed up we already had our goal set, but I could see the whole team just boosted by his presence,” Red Bank Coach Matt Roberson told the newspaper. “They just gelled off the bat.”
For Mildred Alvarez, her son’s baseball success has been a welcome bright spot in the midst of a great transition for her family.
“At first I was worried because it is a new country for us with a different language and different cultures,” she said in a translated email. “But thank God it was not an obstacle for him, both in school and in baseball he has stood out and has adapted.”
From Venezuela to Chattanooga
Since 2014, more than 7 million people have fled Venezuela to escape violence, inflation, gang warfare, high crime rates and food and medicine shortages, according to the UN Refugee Agency. An estimated 2,000 people emigrate from Venezuela every day.
“Over there, I felt very unsafe,” Anyersox said. He said his mother was receiving threats and had to leave the country. In 2022, Anyersox joined the masses leaving Venezuela, moving to Peru to be with his mother and older brother. In February 2024, the family immigrated to the United States, arriving in Chattanooga and welcomed with support from Bridge Refugee Services.
“The first meeting I had with Anyer and his family, he told me that I would see him on TV one day playing the game he loves — baseball,” Megan Revis, his Bridge case manager, wrote in an email.
Bridge helped the family find housing, assisted with transportation, and connected them to English language classes. The organization has also provided moral support, Anyersox said. His case manager even attended one of his baseball games.
“I had the opportunity to watch one of Anyer’s game[s] this season, and as he crossed home plate with all of his teammates cheering him on, I knew then that I will indeed see him on TV some day and am honored to be a small part of his story,” Megan said.
Pursuing his Passion for Baseball
For Anyersox, moving from Venezuela to Peru to the United States was a difficult chapter in his life. “Moving to a new country, and with refugees this is not by choice but by necessity, with a different language and cultural norms than you grew up with is hard enough, throwing high school into that mix can be a challenge to say the least,” Megan wrote. “Anyer has more than embraced the challenge though.”
In Peru, he said, he felt depressed because his baseball options were limited. Since arriving in the United States, his outlook for his future has improved. Anyersox said he’s been “more tranquil and calm.”
“Here I’m able to enjoy and play and do what I like every single day,” he said. The baseball team at Red Bank welcomed him warmly and made him feel right away like he was a part of a family. “The coach at Red Bank says that he loves me like a son,” Anyersox said. “He’s always with me. He supports me, and says he will get me into a university that is best for me.”
Anyersox primarily plays shortstop. During his first season of high school ball in the United States, he said he was particularly proud to be the first Latino to hit a home run in the Red Bank stadium.
He’s had to make some adjustments to his game. “The style of playing is very different in Venezuela, since there are different rules,” he said. And he’s getting lots of time to practice. Over the summer, Anyersox was invited to play for the Chattanooga Baseball Club, on their Smokies team, where he found more strong support for his career goals. “The coach at Smokies always says that he’ll make sure that I’ll have the best future,” he said.
Aiming for the Big Leagues
After Venezuela’s recent presidential election, there’s new unrest and uncertainty. Anyersox worries about his family members, including his father, who remain there. He is grateful for the stability he, his mother, and his brother have found in the United States — and for the support they have received since arriving in Chattanooga. He said he thanked God, his parents, his coaches, and everyone who helped them to get here. “I’m very thankful to the people from Bridge, especially the translators that helped me a lot in high school with everything,” he said. “They helped me and received me like family.”
Anyersox is eying a big year ahead. High on his list: helping the Red Bank Lions win a baseball championship. And after that: graduation, going to college to study sports physical therapy — and definitely continuing to play baseball. “My dream is to continue playing professionally and make it to the big leagues,” he said.
He’s not sure exactly where his future will take him — he’s open to all the possibilities his life now holds. One thing that is for certain is that he has a big fan who has cheered for him from Venezuela, to Peru, to Chattanooga, and who will continue cheering for him wherever he ends up.
“I am very proud of my son and I know that he will achieve many good things,” said his mother. “He is focused, and his dream is to be in the big leagues. I just tell him Papi every time you go out on the field give your best and above all enjoy your game.”