Puerto Rican baseball royalty visited San Quentin’s Field of Dreams to observe and instruct the San Quentin Giants baseball program. Little did the visitors know, that they would be learning life lessons as well.

Tom Axon, who was raised in Brooklyn, NY, owned the Puerto Rican professional baseball team San Turce Cangrejeros, “The Crabbers,” from 2019 to 2022. He called the team the Puerto Rican equivalent of the New York Yankees.

Axon credits fellow visitor David Kalm, who saw an article in The New York Times about the baseball program at San Quentin, with opening his eyes to the extraordinary grit of the San Quentin Giants.

“What a forward-thinking idea, a sports program in prison,” Kalm said, observing SQRC’s Field of Dreams. “Baseball is such a cool activity for people to engage in. This has been life changing for us, honestly.”

Kalm is a board member and legal counsel for Axon’s many businesses, which include a charitable foundation called Camino El Plato, or, “Heading for Home.” 

After Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2021, Axon started a foundation to provide scholarships for underprivileged kids on the island. 

“The public education system is awful and the academies offer real education,” Axon said. “Public schools barely even run. The politicians in the Caribbean want the poor to stay poor, it’s insidious and evil.”

Axon’s foundation operates six academies throughout Puerto Rico.

“We have between 200 and 300 students enrolled at each academy, and 100 percent of  the students graduate and go on to college,” said Axon. 

Axon added the academies are training centers for education and baseball. Several professional baseball players have benefitted from the Camino El Plato Foundation, including former Boston Red Sox catcher Christian Valdez, current Yankee relief pitcher Hector Cruz, and former New York Met Sugar Diaz. 

Axon, Kalm, and a veritable line-up of Puerto Rican players, coaches, and scouts — including current Tampa Bay Devil Rays scout and former Boston Red Sox outfielder Gil Martinez — watched the San Quentin Giants enjoy a half-day practice.

“As a culture in Puerto Rico if you play baseball you either go pro, or plan to go pro. You go to school; if you can go pro you do,” Martinez said. “This experience is incredible; my life is baseball, [and] I’ve never seen this. Never thought it could happen in this environment. I’m 59; seeing this I’m overwhelmed.” 

Another member of Axon’s group was director Reid Wittman, who is currently filming a documentary for the foundation titled, “Beisbol, Legends of Puerto Rico.”  

Wittman spoke about his impression of the prison and baseball program. “There’s good people here that are defined by an outdated narrative that needs to change,” he said.

Humberto Miranda, another member of Axon’s posse, played baseball at Texas Northwood University. He coached professionally for more than 14 years with multiple teams, including the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2016-2018. Miranda now develops young players for the foundation.

“Baseball brings culture [and] different backgrounds together; it’s a family. That’s what sport and baseball is for, a kid sport played by adults. It’s about fun.” 

Visitor Kevin Gildea credits Axon’s foundation for helping many people. “He’s changed my life and many others. He’s a visionary, one of the most intuitive [and] smartest guys you”ll ever meet,” Gildea said. “He really cares about the sport and getting the kids education.” 

Ismael Selgado, outfielder for the Detroit Tigers minor league team in 2017, also put a glove on and practiced with the SQ Giants. Selgado, who now hosts a podcast called the Puerto Rico Sports Nation, or PSRN, shared his wisdom and experience with the SQ Giants by running most of the drills for them.

Delgado, Miranda, Martinez, and Selgado practiced with the team as Kalm watched from the dugout and shared his family’s experiences and talked baseball.

The players and visitors circled-up after practice as Martinez shared the visiting group’s love of baseball. “This is life lessons for us, talking to you guys, seeing that you are trying to do better everyday, this applies to us also. We all got to do better,” Martinez said.

Axon closed by saying the Puerto Rican visit was the start of a new relationship between Puerto Rico and San Quentin baseball. Axon’s visit to SQRC inspired his entourage to approach Puerto Rican authorities about starting prison baseball programs there.

Sports continues to spread rehabilitation onto the global stage.