GROWING UP IN NICARAGUA

• Padilla grew up in poverty and unhappiness during a decade of civil war in Nicaragua. He refuses to talk about those years in the Pacific Lowlands town of Chinandega. They are unpleasant memories of the revolution. A lot of people lost their lives. Most everyone lost relatives and many friends.

• Padilla is the oldest of seven children (four sisters, two brothers). He grew up in a village in Chinandega, Nicaragua, a place in Central America that hears very little English. His mother sold beans and rice to try to keep her family afloat in Nicaragua. His father died of a heart attack when he was 15 years old.

• On June 29, 1999, Padilla became the seventh native of Nicaragua to play in the Major Leagues. Dennis Martinez was the first, and most famous.

• Vicente is a big hero in his native Nicaragua. "They have very few players down there who make it to the Big Leagues. Anytime I go out, people recognize me. It makes me feel very good," Vicente says.

• In Nicaragua, he is the most popular man in their sports world -- an idol. When he pitches, the country stops.
  
  LANGUAGE BARRIER

• Vicente needs to overcome his communication problems and learn English. When his catcher visits the mound, a Latin teammate has to step in to translate, until just recently. So he took English lessons from Judy Amaro, mother of Ruben Amaro, Jr. Phillies assistant. Amaro thinks learning English would definitely add to Vicente's comfort level.

• Vicente is quiet and unassuming. He does not like talking to reporters, and often scowls at their questions.

• Vicente has two young daughters: Ingrid Elena, born in 1998, and Yurisel, born in 2000.

• After the 2000 season, the Phillies got word that Padilla was pitching in an unsanctioned league in Nicaragua. They quickly told him to back off. The reliever had thrown as many as 90 pitches during a game.

• You can see that Padilla has the intensity and desire to be successful. Yet there had been some questions about his motivation and preparation before games. No more. Starting in 2004 spring training, Padilla was focusing his energy on his pitching more than ever before.

• Before 2002 spring training, Padilla went 4-3 with a 2.24 ERA in Mexican Winter League, striking out 54 batters and walking only 9 in 60 innings.

• Vicente had a sombrero-wearing fan club at the Vet in Philly. They called themselves the Flotilla, and they sat in the 700 level.

• In February 2004, A Nicaraguan newspaper El Nuevo Diario, one of the principal newspapers in Managua, Nicaragua's capital, printed a story with a headline: "Vicente Padilla Is Destroying Himself." Padilla's agent backed up the pitcher, scoffing at the story.

  "There have been stories about Vicente on many occasions," said Rudy Valenzuela, Padilla's agent. "I've been around Vicente many times. I was just in Nicaragua. Those stories were swirling when we were there. I didn't see Vicente drink one day I was with him. Not to say that he doesn't drink, but in all the years I've known him, any time it's brought up, I've checked into it. It's not a concern of ours."
  
  As for the Phillies: "There's nothing to comment on," Phillies assistant general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said. "There's no basis for us to make any comments. To my knowledge, neither Ed Wade nor I have ever spoken to anybody in either of those countries about Vicente Padilla, so for them to make those kinds of comments is basically hearsay."
  
  The next day, the Phillies also denied ever having a problem with Padilla and alcohol. "It's all nonsense," general manager Ed Wade said. "We at no time had an issue with Vicente Padilla." Manager Larry Bowa said, "He's never given me any indication that he's had off-the-field problems. He's never come in with, say, alcohol on his breath. Not even a hint of it. He's had no problems there."
  
  Rudy Valenzuela, the pitcher's agent, pointed out that Padilla has a poor relationship with Nicaraguan journalists; he no longer speaks to them. Padilla, who is interviewed in English through an interpreter, also stopped talking with Phillies reporters at the end of February 2004. 
  (phillynews.com-2/5/04)

• On July 7, 2006, Vicente was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated. But those charges were dropped in August.

• Before 2004 spring training, Padilla lost his best friend in a car accident. (More details under Career Injury.) He showed up for camp ready to work.

  "He's been probably more focused from the first day of spring training than I've ever seen him," said Phillies manager Larry Bowa in March 2004." His work ethic, side sessions, running, preparation, everything. He's been on right from jump street.

  "Sometimes you take things for granted. You pitch in the minor leagues and get people out without having to bust your butt, and you come up here and it's a different game. When Padilla works and prepares, he's a good pitcher anyway, but when he does this, he's extra good."
  (Ken Madel-MLB.com-3/20/04)

• During 2004 spring training, Vicente became very close with teammate/reliever Roberto Hernandez. But Padilla chose not to talk to the press about this.

  "That's his choice," Hernandez said. "Maybe he doesn't feel comfortable with the language barrier, where he may not know how to express himself clearer. To eliminate that, he'd rather say nothing at all. A lot of guys who don't know him may perceive him as angry, but in my eyes he's just channeling his energy to something else. He may be a little rebellious, but he's using that to propel his game. Steve Carlton never talked to the press. They used that energy and focus on what they do best."

• January 8, 2005: Vicente's Hummer collided with a truck in Nicaragua, but he was not injured. The newspaper La Prensa reported that the accident occurred when the truck, driven by a 15-year-old boy, swerved into Padilla's path as Padilla's vehicle passed it on a highway. This all happened near his home town of Chinandega, about 100 miles north of the capital city of Managua.

  La Prensa quoted police as saying that Padilla, 27, was the driver and the owner of the Hummer. But Padilla's agent, Rudy Valenzuela, said that Padilla was in the back seat while a friend drove the car.

  "He's fine," Valenzuela said. "It was a fender-bender. It wasn't anything major. He went home and went to sleep after it happened. It wasn't a big deal. Nobody was hurt."

• Padilla has a reputation for being stubborn on the field and reluctant to mingle with teammates off it. But he is maturing.

• On February 15, 2007, Padilla introduced the Vicente Padilla Foundation, a foundation created to support local students in sports while at the same time stimulating the studies of young people who have good qualifications and sparse economic resources.

  "I believe that one does not have to be egotistic and that God has blessed me with the talent that I have to play baseball, and I want to share a little of that with those that do not have the resources to play or to study," Padilla said, explaining the motives of his project alongside the foundation's board of directors.

  "Thank you for accompanying me today in the realization of this dream that I have had and that is to help the poorest children," Padilla said. "I want to say here no one will be excluded, and that all the help or support that is donated in hopes to support the foundation will be welcomed and distributed well."

• September 16, 2007: Padilla was suspended by MLB for throwing at Nick Swisher of the A's. (Swisher was suspended for three games.)

• June 1, 2008: Vicente received permission to leave the Rangers, returning to his native Nicaragua to attend to what manager Ron Washington termed "a family personal matter."

• Padilla says his excellent 2008 season is due mostly because of a training regimen that he began in January of '08 in his native Nicaragua. Reliever Frank Francisco, one of Padilla's closest friends on the team, trained with Padilla in Nicaragua.

  "Few people outside of the team know what kind of a worker Vicente is," Francisco said. "After seeing him train, it doesn't surprise me that he's having a great year."

• Early in July, 2009, Vicente marked his cap with the letters "AA" for boxer Alexis Arguello. But the Rangers received a warning letter from Major League Baseball for Padilla marking his cap, so Padilla had to get a new one.

  Arguello, a former world champion, native of Nicaragua and the mayor of Managua, was found dead early in July of an apparent suicide.

  "He's one of the heroes of our country," Padilla said.

• Padilla bought a 4-year-old race horse in 2011. And the gelding, "Bud I Crushed It" won the 10th race at the Sonoma County Fair in Santa Rosa on July 31, 2011.  Trained by Debbie Winick and ridden by Catalino Martinez, Bud I Crushed It won by 1 1/2 lengths.

  Padilla has raced horses for years in his native Nicaragua.

• February 2, 2012: Padilla had his passport revoked and is the subject of a "capture order" after failing to pay $540 a month in child support for his 10th child.
  
  TRANSACTION REPORT

• July 1998: Vicente was spotted by Diamondbacks scout Junior Noboa when Padilla was a star pitcher for the Nicaraguan national team at the Pan American games qualifying tournament in Nicaragua. He then signed him out from under dozens of other scouts. The Yankees were also especially interested. Padilla signed for a bonus of $17,500.

• July 26, 2000: The Phillies sent P Curt Schilling to the Diamondbacks to acquire Vicente, P Omar Daal, 1B Travis Lee and P Nelson Figueroa.

• December 12, 2005: The Rangers sent P Ricardo Rodriguez to the Phillies, acquiring Padilla.

• December 7, 2006: Padilla signed a 3-year, $33.75 million contract with the Rangers. The deal includes a $12 million option for a fourth year (2010).

• August 7, 2009: The Rangers released Padilla for throwing at opposing hitters, thereby endangering his teammates. And, Vicente was often late or absent from meetings and other team events. Also, since the All-Star break, Padilla's ERA was 6.75. His only good month was May, when he was 2-0 with a 1.75 ERA in three starts.

• August 19, 2009: The Dodgers signed Padilla.

• February 6, 2009: Vicente filed for free agency.

• January 21 2010: Padilla signed a one-year, $5.025 million contract with the Dodgers.

• December 7, 2010: Vicente signed a one-year, $2 million contract with the Dodgers. Performance bonuses could increase the amount, with as much as $8 million in incentives if he makes 33 starts or as much as $6 million in incentives based on relief workload.

• February 1, 2012: Padilla signed with the Red Sox organization.

• January 16, 2013: Vicnete signed a one-year, $3.25 million deal with Japan's SoftBank Hawks.

• Padilla has a 93-97 mph blistering FASTBALL with late cutting life, and a hard SLIDER that has developed into an excellent pitch. He has a drop-down CURVE that is hard for a hitter to pick up. On occasion, he has even been known to throw in a KNUCKLEBALL or three.

  He dropped his changeup because the Phillies felt that it overloaded him with too much to work on.

  In 2010, Vicente was showing hitters a "soap bubble" pitch, which is a curveball thrown at speeds that seldom exceed 60 mph. It comes in with a high arc and, if thrown correctly, breaks sharply as it passes through the strike zone. 

• 1998 was the year Vicente first learned his nasty slider from fellow Nicaraguan Dennis Martinez. Martinez also helped with Padilla's other pitches.
  
  
  
• Vicente has very good control, but he is inconsistent with his command. He changes arm angles very effectively. When his mechanics are working properly, he is very effective, but when his delivery is off, his pitches flatten and become very hittable.

• Vicente has a nasty streak that works well for him in late-inning relief performances as a set-up man. But he has to learn to pitch inside more effectively.

  Rangers manager Ron Washington is impressed with Padilla. "I like his attitude," Washington said with a smile. "He's a 'no-prisoners' guy. He could be having a bad day, but before he leaves that mound, he'll take somebody with him. I like that."

• Vicente is fearless and wants to be on the mound.

  "I like to pitch inside," Padilla said. "That's my style. As long as the hitters don't back off, I'm going to keep pounding inside. If I do it any other way, I'm the one who is going to have a problem because they're going to be hitting me."

• Padilla is very effective against righthanded batters, but lefty hitters can hurt him (.337 in 2000).
• He can be used either as a starter, or out of the bullpen.
• If Padilla gains control of his emotions AND his slider, he could be a fine Major League starting pitcher for a long time. Inconsistency and lack of focus on every pitch hurts him. He gets frustrated and tends to overthrow. (January 2006)
• "I know I can be a dominant pitcher," Padilla said in early 2002, with the swagger of a Curt Schilling.

• Padilla throws from a vast array of arm angles with impressive velocity. The Nicaraguan could still emerge as a #4 or #5 starter, or a fine middle innings reliever.
  
  
  

• Padilla was the last Opening Day pitcher for the Dodgers (in 2010) before Clayton Kershaw began a 9-year run: 2011 through 2018.
• Entering the 2013 season, Padilla had a career record of 108-91 with a 4.32 ERA. He had allowed 181 home runs and 1,612 hits in 1,571 innings.

• Vicente does a fairly decent job with the glove.
• He is slow to the plate, so runners can steal on him.

• May 13–May 30, 2001: Padilla went on the D.L. with a sprained right ankle. 
• October 2003: Padilla was in a car accident in which he only bruised his shoulder, though his driver died. This occurred as he was making the 70-mile trip from the capital of Managua to his hometown, Chinandega, police said.
  
  Police said that the driver, Abrahan Flores, apparently fell asleep at the wheel, and the car careened off the highway and rolled. But Padilla said the car's rear tire exploded, which caused the car to swerve. No alcohol was involved.
  
  Padilla was treated at the Hospital Espana in Chinandega and released the same night. Padilla had been wearing a seat belt, Abrahan Flores, had not. The two had been friends since childhood.

• May 30-August 10, 2004: Vicente was on the D.L. with right triceps tendinitis. Then, late in June, he was diagnosed by Phillies team physician Michael Cicotti with elbow inflammation, in additition to the tendinitis.

• March 1, 2005: Padilla again was again hit with triceps tendinitis, missing much of spring training. On March 25, he was put on the D.L. where he remained for the start of the 2005 season.

• June 22–August 15, 2007: Padilla went on the D.L. with triceps inflammation behind the right elbow. He had been pitching through it since spring training, but his velocity and command suffered a lot.

• July 5–20, 2008: Padilla was on the D.L. with a strained muscle in the right side of his neck.

• August 26–September 9, 2008: Padilla was on the D.L. with inflammation in a muscle joint between his right shoulder and neck, but that is not the problem. Instead he injured the hamstring doing wind sprints in the outfield while the Rangers were in Kansas City.

• May 17–June 2, 2009: Padilla was on the D.L. with a strained right shoulder.

• July 22, 2009: Vicente was diagnosed with the swine flu. Padilla, who spent the recent All-Star break in his home country of Nicaragua, is thought to be the first athlete in U.S. major pro sports to be diagnosed with swine flu.
  
  Lots of other Rangers players soon came down with symptoms. And they were prescribed medication, including Tamiflu. Example: Reliever Eddie Guardado didn't come to the park for two games in Arlington because he was too sick.

  "I had never missed a game for being sick in my career," he said. "My wife came and asked me if I was all right and I said, 'Why don't you just bring the gun.' That's how bad it was. I've never been like that ever."

• November, 2009: Padilla was accidentally shot in the right leg by his bodyguard at a shooting range. He suffered the injury in his native Nicaragua and was treated and released from a Managua hospital.

• April 25-June 17, 2010: Vicente went on the D.L. with a sore upper right forearm muscle. It was an irritation of the radial nerve in the forearm.  The treatment: rest and nerve medication.

• August 16-September 5, 2010: Padilla was on the D.L. with a bulging disc in his neck.
  
  September 11, 2010: Vicente was sidelined for the rest of the season with the bulging disc in his neck. Most that have a disc problem in the neck have pain down the arm. Padilla has pain in the middle of his shoulder blade on the left side.

• February 25-April 22, 2011: Padilla had surgery to free the troublesome radial nerve at the top of his right elbow, which an MRI showed was being trapped by a muscle in his forearm.

• May 19, 2011: Vicente was on the D.L. with discomfort in his right forearm. It is the kind of irritation that normally follows the type of surgery to free an entrapped radial never like Padilla had in February.

  "Throughout the season he's going to have this nerve irritation once in a while," Dodgers trainer Stan Conte said. "It's just the nature of the injury. Although the surgery released the nerve from suppression, the nerve takes a long time to get 100 percent back. ... That doesn't mean that he can't pitch, it just means that it's not all that unusual to see irritation."
  
  June 16, 2011: Padilla required surgery on his neck to repair a bulging disk. It was the same kind of neck injury he had in 2010. But this time, it required a fusion of the vertebrae. It not only ended Vicente's season, but probably his career.

• March 13, 2012: Padilla developed a right hamstring injury in the middle of camp, then worked toward becoming a reliever out of the Red Sox' bullpen.
  
  August 6-21, 2012: Vicente was on the D.L. with a strained right biceps.