Dream Chaser

For Marcus Stroman, a little extra edge is always easy to find, whether it’s facing his mom’s native Puerto Rico in the wbc or digging Toronto out of an early-season hole.

- Robert Sanchez

Long after the game ends, after the trophy presentation and the onfield interview, after the boozy clubhouse celebration and the shower, Marcus Stroman piles into a car outside Dodger Stadium with two friends. He stretches out in the back seat and pulls out his phone. The gold medal from the World Baseball Classic still hangs around his neck; his Most Valuable Player plaque rests in his lap. For Team USA’s ace starter, it has been an impossibly long month that led to this first WBC title, an 8-0 win against Team Puerto Rico on the back of his six near-perfect innings. As his friend drives, Stroman starts dialing. It is 3 a.m. back in Medford, New York, but Adlin Auffant hasn’t slept in the hours since watching the last out from her family room, where she ​laughed and screamed and cried alongside her daughter and son-in-law. Auffant was born in Puerto Rico, and for months she had been the outlet for her homeland’s rage against her son, a punching bag for online trolls who loathed Stroman’s commitment to Team USA—even though Stroman himself had never been to the U.S. territory. The messages to Auffant ran from mean to obscene. She often called Marcus in tears. Someone even threatened physical violence against him.

Stroman had endured it all—and now, in a dramatic turn out of a Hollywood screenplay, had beaten Team Puerto Rico in the WBC finale.

Auffant’s cellphone flashes to life at her bedside. She picks up on the first ring. 

“Mom …” 

“I know, honey.” 

“This is crazy, right?” 

“Honey, you did it.”