Puerto Rican baseball associates 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 also be learning something new that day.

Tom Axon, who owned the Puerto Rican professional baseball team Cangrejeros de Santurce, “The Crabbers,” from 2019 to 2022, said his friend David Kalm saw an article in the New York Times about the baseball program at San Quentin. The friends read the story and decided they wanted to see the program in person.

Axon said San Turce is iconic in Puerto Rico and is considered the American equivalent of The New York Yankees.

Axon owns the Camino el Plato or the “Heading for Home” foundation that operates six academies throughout Puerto Rico.

The six academies enroll 200 to 300 students, and 100% of the students graduate and go on to college while a few even move on to professional baseball, including catcher for the Boston Red Sox, Christian Valdez and current Yankee relief pitcher Hector Cruz, and Sugar Diaz, who played with the New York Mets.

Axon’s reasoning to start the program was that the Puerto Rican government does not provide good education for kids.

“The public education system is awful, and the academies offer real education,” Axon said.

Kalm added, “What a forward-thinking idea, a sports program in prison. Baseball is such a cool activity for people to engage in. This has been life-changing for us, honestly.”

The San Quentin Giants enjoyed a half-day practice as members of Axon’s group, provided instructional expertise while reminiscing in the dugout about their own glory days.

Axon and Kalm brought a veritable line-up of Puerto Rican players/coaches/scouts to SQRC, including Gil Martinez who was an outfielder for the 1985-1990 Boston Red Sox and is currently a scout for the Tampa Bay Rays. 

“This experience is incredible, my life is baseball, [and] I’ve never seen this,” said Martinez. “Never thought it could happen in this environment; I’m 59, seeing this I’m overwhelmed.”

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

“There’s good people here … defined by an outdated narrative that needs to change,” Wittman said.

Professional Puerto Rican baseball player Ray Delgado, 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 that they shared with the incarcerated ball players.

Martinez said, “This is a life lesson 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 the visit by saying the Puerto Rican visit was the start of a new relationship between Puerto Rico and San Quentin baseball.