Andrew Velazquez was a teenager in the Bronx, New York, when he reached a crossroads in life, with one track leading toward a potential future in baseball and the other down a path of possible destruction.
If the kid who would grow up to be this year's Angels shortstop, a diminutive defensive whiz who has transformed the infield with his spectacular play, didn't see the whole situation clearly at the time, his father did.
Kenneth Velazquez grew up in South Bronx, in the Moore Houses projects on East 149th Street and Jackson Avenue. He spent 20 years in the New York Police Department, working undercover in narcotics during the crack-cocaine epidemic and as a detective in the 42nd Precinct near Yankee Stadium.
