Sports Envoy Program
Baseball
Gilberto Mendoza Jr. started playing baseball at 4 years old. In high school, Mendoza played for Tottenville High, whom he went on to win a championship with. In football, he was the number one running back in NYC 2011-2012 PSAC football. His senior year at Tottenville, Mendoza earned a scholarship for both baseball and football to attend Baruch College in New York. At Baruch, Mendoza played Shortstop and Infield on the baseball team.
Baseball
Beginning his baseball career as the starting pitcher at Stanford University, Jeremy Guthrie currently plays for the Eastern Reyes del Tigre of the Constellation Energy League, but played for 15 years in MLB for the Cleveland Indians, Baltimore Orioles, Colorado Rockies, Kansas City Royals, and the Washington Nationals.
Guthrie pitched for Team USA in the 2009 World Baseball Classic. During his time with the Kansas City Royals, he logged the most innings of his career during the 2013 season with 211⅔. He finished with a 15–12 record and a 4.04 ERA. The 2014 season Guthrie posted a 4.13 ERA over 202.2 innings and finished the regular season with a record of 13–11.
Guthrie is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and he served for two years as a missionary for the church in Spain. On February 1, 2018, Guthrie began a three-year assignment as president of its Texas Houston South Mission for the LDS church.
Baseball
Born in the baseball talent hotbed of the Dominican Republic, Elias began playing baseball early in life which led to him being signed by a Major League team. Making his major league debut in 1972 at the age of 22, Elias played for 8 Major League teams during the course of his 12 year professional career. In 1973 he finished tied for 3rdfor the Rookie of the Year award finishing with 10 total wins for the season. Upon his retirement from baseball Elias still remains very active in the baseball community in the Dominican Republic. Since 2001 he has worked for Major League Baseball International working to develop baseball programs within various Latin American countries.
Softball
Jessica Mendoza’s softball accomplishments are almost too vast to comprehend: After an incredible career at Stanford where she was a four-time First-Team All-American Outfielder and led the Cardinal to their first ever Women’s College World Series Appearance (she still holds 5 Stanford school records, including batting average & career home runs), Jessica became a member of the U.S. Women’s National Team. From 2001-10, she won both a Gold (Athens, 2004) and Silver (Beijing, 2008) Medal, in addition to being a three-time World Champion (2002, 2006, 2010) and World Cup Champion (2006, 2007, 2010).
Triathalon
Barry Siff had a successful business career primarily in the food industry. He was a Vice President by the time he was 27, and eventually became Sr. Vice President of a multi-billion dollar company at the age of 40. However, after less than three years in that role, at the age of just 42, he and his entire executive team were removed, and Barry reinvented himself into the world of sports.
An avid marathoner and triathlete, having completed over 70 marathons, ultra-marathons, and Ironman competitions, Siff turned to the then exploding world of adventure racing. He helped start “MountainQuest Adventures,” which held 24-hour events and training camps in Colorado. At the same time, Siff became an elite adventure racing athlete, racing all over the world in multi-day expedition races from 1998 to 2003. These 5-10 day events took him to places like Tibet, Argentina, New Zealand, China, Fiji, and a dozen other exotic remote locations.
In 2004, Barry and his wife, Jodee, bought a small triathlon in Boulder, CO, and in five short years grew “5430 Sports” into one of America’s leading triathlon event companies, selling it to World Triathlon Corp. (“Ironman”) in 2009. Looking to give back to the sport he loved so much, Barry got involved with and ultimately was elected to the Board of Directors of USA Triathlon in 2012. In 2014, he was elected President of USA Triathlon, and served five years in this capacity.
Siff was asked to join the International Triathlon Union (ITU) Executive Board, also, in 2014, the governing body of the sport worldwide, and continues in that capacity today. In 2016, Siff was appointed a U.S. Department of State Sports Envoy, and has made sports diplomacy trips in that capacity to Benin (Africa), Panama, and Seoul, Korea.
Barry has served on the Boards of the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine, the Boulder Convention and Visitors Bureau, and has also co-authored two books: “Adventure Racing: The Ultimate Guide” and “Fit and Fun for Life.” He holds a BS in Civil Engineering from WPI, and an MA in Industrial Relations from Wayne State University. He continues to remain very active in triathlon, running, and other endurance events today.