Playing FOR REAL

DOMINIC BLANCO

“I was born with a baseball bat in my hands,” says Naplesborn Dominic Blanco, who signed with the Seattle Mariners at 18. After three years in Seattle, he played for two more for the Minnesota Twins. He attributes his professional success to his parents, who left Cuba and landed in Naples just before Blanco’s older brother was born. When Blanco was three, his grandfather made him a batter box with a ball dangling from the ceiling on a string, and he would swing for hours. He made the varsity baseball team as a freshman at Gulf Coast High School and got drafted a week after graduation. “I will never forget that feeling,” he says. “I got that day tattooed on my arm.” The next day, he flew to Arizona for training.

Now, at 25, his professional baseball career is in the rearview mirror, but not far behind. He’s back in Naples, now at the helm of his own sports agency and a 501(c)(3) charity. Blanco started his own nonprofit foundation in 2019 to inspire kids through art, music, and sports.

Blanco taps his entrepreneurial side with the same gusto and dedication he put into baseball. Even as a Little Leaguer with Golden Gate National, Blanco paid attention to his team’s skill. He was always at least two or three years younger than his teammates. “Playing with older, stronger, and faster kids made me a better ball player,” he says. “It forced me to compete.” It is also one of the reasons he feels strongly about community service. Throughout