Get to Know Angel Caban, Indians Bat Boy

Indians bat boy Angel Caban, 19, will be a sophomore at Lourdes University in Sylvania, OH, in the fall. Caban hails from San Sebastian, Puerto Rico, and is currently studying pre-physical therapy.

TribeVibe: What is your favorite part of the job?
Angel Caban: It’s really just having a great seat and watching the baseball game. People pay to come here, and I’m lucky enough to watch a game for free.

TV: Where is the best seat in the house?
AC: I think we have it. It’s right there by the dugout. You’re like 40 feet away, and you get all the action. We hate [sitting down] the line. We always try to be here by the dugout because time goes by way quicker when you’re bat-boying. We just tell [the other guys] that we want to sit here. It used to be that we rotated, but not anymore.

TV: Do you ever congratulate the players after a big hit?
AC: All the time. I make sure I’m the first one. After the game, you get five text messages saying, ‘I saw you on TV.’ It’s always good to get some TV time.

TV: What has been your most embarrassing moment?
AC: One of them was my first day here. I was on the visiting side. The equipment manager for the Tampa Bay Rays told me to go get a bat straightener, so I had to go all the way to the Home Clubhouse to get a bat straightener. It was a joke, so I just kept going back and forth. There’s no such thing as that. I had to ask Cliff Lee, Victor Martinez, all those guys. I went to the batting cages, and they said there’s no such thing as that.

The other time, I was ball-boying, and I had gotten my family tickets. I didn’t know it, but it was right down the third-base line. Every time I walked by, they’d be chanting my name, and people were like, ‘What’s wrong with them?’

TV: What has been your most intimidating moment?
AC: We call it the Walk of Shame. When you’re ball-boying and you walk all the way down the foul line, you have all those fans looking at you, and the game hasn’t even started. You have little kids asking for a ball. We call that the Walk of Shame because it’s intimidating for us.

TV: Is there anything that you are afraid will happen to you on the job?
AC: Getting hit by a foul ball straight at me.

TV: Who is your favorite player?
AC: [Justin] Masterson. He is someone who you can sit down and talk about anything with. I was talking about college baseball with him because I played his old college, Bethel. We were talking about how we played against his old team, and it’s just fun to talk about stuff like that. It’s not always about being up here. Having a regular conversation with him is kind of nice.

TV: Do you communicate a lot with the Spanish-speaking players?
AC: Yes, especially with Carlos Santana. We talk every day. We used to have nicknames for each other — Asdrubal and all those guys. We talk Spanish all the time.

TV: What has been the most memorable game that you have worked?
AC: Right now, probably [the win against Reds pitcher Aroldis] Chapman. I liked the Chapman walk-off. That beats the Carlos Santana grand slam because that’s Chapman. That guy throws like 105 mph. I felt like a player that day.

-Megan Golden, TribeVibe contributor