Sports Envoy Program
Baseball
Raúl Casanova is a former Puerto Rican Major League Baseball player who was a catcher from 1996 to 2008. Casanova belonged to the Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers, Baltimore Orioles, Chicago White Sox, Tampa Bay and New York Mets teams with whom he ended his career in the 2008. Casanova earned a world championship ring with the Chicago White Sox team in 2005.
Baseball
Born on the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico, one of baseball’s most prominent talent hotbeds, Luis began playing baseball from an early age which eventually led to him playing baseball at Florida State University in Tallahassee Florida. Where Luis set a school record with a 27 game hit streak earning him All-American honors. Luis was selected by the St. Louis Cardinals with the 23rd overall pick in the 1st round of the 1986 amateur June draft. Luis played 13 seasons in the Majors with 5 teams which encompassed 1,341 total games and a career .260 batting average. Upon his retirement from the game in 2002 Luis began to coach and managed the Boston Red Sox affiliates, Lowell Spinners in 2004 and 2005 and in 2006 was back in the Majors when Boston hired him as a first base coach, then the Mets in 2009. Now Luis spends his days “learning as much as possible and to teach others about life after sport”. Luis also enjoys giving back to his community and teach youth about the game of baseball, and also recently created the “Luis Alicea Scholarship Fund to help raise money and help kids in need”.
Baseball
Joe Logan was All American pitcher for Florida Southern College when the Moccasins won the NCAA Division II National Championship in 1988. He had previously played for Chipola Junior College where he also won All American honors.
The Montréal Expos took him in the 28th round of the 1989 amateur draft. Joe played minor league ball in the Montréal Expos organization from 1989-1991, then played one year in the independent Northern League in 1993. He was 4-7 with a 2.88 ERA in his pro debut for the Jamestown Jammers to help them to the New York-Penn League title. He split 1990 between the Rockford Expos (10-2, 2.63) and West Palm Beach Expos (1-0, 1.88). Had he qualified, he would have been 5th in the Midwest League in ERA, just ahead of Pat Rapp. Back with West Palm Beach in 1991, he fell to 6-12, 3.18. In 1993, he was 0-1 with a 10.80 ERA for the Sioux Falls Canaries to finish with a 21-22, 3.13 record in pro ball.
After his Major League Baseball career ended, Joe was a minor league pitching coach for the Anaheim Angels from 1994-2000. Since 2002, Joe Logan has served as coach for the Orlando Reds AAU organization and he continues to work with collegiate and professional baseball players on a regular basis.
Baseball
Barry Larkin a 19-year Major Leaguer, 12-time National League All-Star, 1995 N.L. Most Valuable Player and MLB Network studio analyst, spent his entire career with the Cincinnati Reds. Larkin served as Special Assistant to the General Manager for the Washington Nationals, specializing in player development and scouting. Larkin also participated in Major League Baseball’s efforts, led by Jim Lefebvre, to develop and train the Chinese National Baseball Team in preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
Larkin was selected by the Reds in the first round (fourth overall) in 1985 following a standout career at the University of Michigan. Larkin batted .353 in the 1990 World Series to help lead the Reds to a four-game sweep of the Oakland Athletics. He won three consecutive Rawlings Gold Glove Awards from 1994-96. He earned 1995 N.L. MVP honors by hitting .319 with 15 home runs, 66 RBI and 51 stolen bases. In 1996, Larkin became the first Major League shortstop to join the 30-30 club when he hit 33 home runs and stole 36 bases. Larkin was named the Reds’ captain before the 1997 season.
Larkin batted .295, with 2,340 hits, 198 home runs, 960 RBI, 1,329 runs scored and 379 stolen bases. Baseball historian Bill James has called Larkin one of the greatest shortstops of all time, ranking him #6 all-time in his New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract.
In 1993 Larkin won the Roberto Clemente Award, Major League Baseball’s highest off-field honor, for his philanthropy. In 2008, Larkin released a charity wine called “Barry Larkin’s Merlot,” with 100% of his proceeds supporting Champions Sports Foundation.