Ever heard of Edgar Rentaria?

If you’re a baseball fan you probably have heard of Mr. Rentaria. I’m Diego León in Len Koepsell’s novel Three Strikes, You’re Dead. I’m a crew chief umpire for the Winter League here in Colombia. I’m also what you’d call an in-country babysitter for visiting American umpires, like Vic Jennings and his friend Whitney.

Edgar Rentaria single-handedly brought baseball dreams back to underprivileged kids in Colombia. As a native of Barranquilla he made it to the Majors as a shortstop and played for seven different teams from 1996 to 2011. He was a World Series champion for two different teams and a World Series MVP in 2010. He won two Golden Gloves and three Silver Slugger awards.

I was sitting at home, reading Edgar Rentaria’s paperback biography when karma called. Sometimes you do a good deed for someone and you never hear from them again. Sometimes they call you back, out of the blue, and it changes everything. In my case, karma helped solve a mystery.

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Read more in Three Strikes, You're Dead - available on Amazon, Kindle and Barnes & Noble.