Meanwhile in Felixland...

Geoff Baker ventured to Venezuela in mid-October and got the following about a former Timber Rattler.

At home with Felix Hernandez

Some tasty nuggets from a long article that is well worth the read:

VALENCIA, Venezuela — The noon sun belts out high heat as a bleary-eyed Felix Hernandez drags himself from his bedroom.

An entire morning has passed since his first wake-up call, from a rooster serenading him just outside the door. Now, the voices from downstairs, in the only true home Hernandez has ever known, finally convince the Mariners pitcher he'd best show his face.
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Hernandez returns each winter to this industrial South American city of 1.4 million people, about 100 miles southwest of Caracas. His father bought the family's two-level home 23 years ago with his savings as a truck driver and — despite some remodeling — little about it has changed. Life here isn't much different for Hernandez now than it was in his early teens. The simplicity of it all would shock many fans in the United States.

While he drives a Ford Explorer, it's not all that uncommon in this oil-rich country, where public transit is woefully inefficient and gasoline costs about 12 cents a gallon. Hernandez also recently bought his own two-story home about a half-hour's drive away, though it won't be ready until December.
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"I'm not famous," the ballplayer protests while making his bed, which is covered by one of those blankets given away by the Mariners in fan promotions. "Please, don't call me famous because I'm not famous."
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Hernandez's neighborhood, while quieter than the skyscraper-filled downtown, is by no means exclusive and has its share of drunks, beggars and would-be muggers and extortionists prowling the streets.

"I don't let him go out at night," his mother says, shaking her head. "It's too dangerous."

His father adds: "We try to give him advice all the time, to explain to him how the situation is in Venezuela and what he should be doing. Or shouldn't be doing."
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Hernandez gets told to pick up his things, to help clear away the family's laundry backlog and when he can come and go. He knows better than to argue. After all, it was his mother who cracked down on his boyhood penchant for shooting hoops at the playground during school hours and told him his best hope for the future was honing his baseball talent.

"He was terrible as a child," she says with a laugh. "He skipped school all the time to play basketball. I was the one who told him, 'You're going to play baseball because it's what I want you to do.'
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Hernandez admits he'd never really envisioned himself as a baseball player. He played shortstop in Little League and could hit the ball farther than most of the other children. But it was on the basketball court where he really excelled.

"I wanted to make it to the NBA," he says. "I was real good, too, man. Really good. I had the moves."

The whole article is really good, but my favorite part is right at the end. It is a quote from Hernandez and I'll let it be the end of this post:

"I didn't play baseball because I wanted a different life," Hernandez says. "I played baseball because it was fun. I enjoyed it. It wasn't about having money. It wasn't about wanting to live somewhere else.

"I like playing baseball, so I play. All I wanted to do was play and have fun. And that's what I'm still doing. So, for me, I'm very happy. I don't need more."