Five Hundred From La Sabana

La Sabana

In the small coastal fishing town of La Sabana, Venezuela, a kid without a baseball will make one. Ronald Acuña Jr. crumpled newspaper, wrapped it tight in tape, and played until each ball was lost or ruined — batches of fifteen or twenty at a time. He asked his mother for spare change to buy the tape. She gave it without asking what it was for. Leonelis Blanco sold lottery raffle tickets to support the family while his father, Ronald Acuña Sr., pursued a minor-league career in the United States. Baseball was the household trade: a maternal grandfather who pitched in the minors, cousins Kelvim Escobar and Alcides Escobar who reached the majors, and eventually a younger brother, Luisangel, who debuted with the New York Mets.

Most clubs passed on Acuña at sixteen, wary of his undersized frame. He had grown frustrated with repeated unkept promises from scouts and told his mother he wanted to stop. Braves scout Rolando Petit contacted him to come to Caracas, promising a signing. Still doubtful, Acuña went, performed well, and signed that evening. He returned home to find his mother and aunts crying tears of joy as she urged him to keep working so they could see him in the majors. Atlanta had signed him as an international free agent for a $100,000 bonus.

On the day of his major-league call-up, the manager knocked on his hotel room door. Acuña and his Spanish-speaking roommate hesitated, argued over who should answer, and Acuña eventually tricked the roommate into opening it. He could not reach his parents by phone, so he texted his father the news. Back in La Sabana, a party started.

Five Hundred

On September 5, 2026, Acuña collected his 500th career RBI. He is 28, in his ninth season — all of them in Atlanta. He debuted on April 25, 2018, and was the National League Rookie of the Year that year. By 2023 he was the league MVP and the Hank Aaron Award winner, with five All-Star selections across the years. Across 906 games he has hit 201 home runs and stolen 225 bases, batting .286.

He is still an outfielder for the Braves, with 85 hits and 15 home runs through 89 games this season.

Reporting: The Players' Tribune, MLB.com, Britannica. Career and biographical data: MLB StatsAPI, via the Fever engine.