Alfonzo with the Miami Marlins in 2015.
Giovanny Alfonzo was drafted by the Miami Marlins in the 21st round of the 2015 MLB Draft out of Tampa University (DII). Alfonzo played three MiLB seasons and most recently played for an Independent League league team (a professional league unaffiliated with MLB or MiLB), the High Point Rockers. Gio smoothly transitioned to life after baseball. He is currently employed at The Rickman Law Firm as a legal assistant. However, he still has many fond memories of his professional baseball playing days, and some not so fond.
"There were times 8-9 players were living in a 3 bedroom apartment to make sure the rent was as low as possible so we could afford to get groceries. Per diem usually went to the clubhouse dues and clubhouse managers on the road so guys would be stuck ordering one pizza each to last an entire road trip. I remember seeing guys having to take home leftover spread sometimes just to pinch the paycheck to last until the next one came out.
Trust me I wouldn’t have traded any of it for the world but man it was tough.
I was fortunate enough to have financial support from my family but there are a lot of guys playing ball that don’t have that. I hated seeing that. I bought food and groceries for some guys that needed help.
Most of the time it worked out like we got $12 a day for a 3 day trip. $36 for the trip. The clubhouse manager would end up charging like $7 a day which left us with $15 to get us breakfast and post game dinner if we wanted for those three days since we got lunch and post game at the field. Most of the time the food at the field wasn’t good so we wanted to get food after or before."
- Giovanny Alfonzo