Mets father Luis Guillorme Sr. knows best
When it comes to touching base with his son, Luis Guillorme Sr. is on the ball.
“Up to this day … I’ll get texts about every single one of my at-bats,” Mets’ super-utility player Luis Guillorme Jr. said.
“Every single one — whether it was good, whether it was bad. If he has to put me on the spot … he will.”
Luis Sr. started the texting tradition when his son left their Davie, Florida home to play for the Gulf Coast Mets in Port St. Lucie in 2013.
“When he turned professional, he was only 18 years old when he moved by himself to Port St. Lucie. And I started doing that all the time, texting him, trying to be on top of him,” dad told The Post, while driving to catch his flight to New York for Father’s Day weekend.
The Venezuelan native said he and his wife Lilibeth decided to enroll their son in Little League at 4 years old to burn off some of his extra energy.
“We put him in a lot of sports because he had too much energy,” he explained. “Every night was a mess with him. It was 10, 11pm and he was still up.”
It was when Luis Jr. was a sophomore in high school that his dad realized he could play professionally.
“He had the material to be different than the other guys. Because at 11, 12, he was good … but that’s still a kid.”
He still can’t put into words the pride and excitement he felt when he first got the news that his son was called to the Majors in 2018.
“That’s something you can’t express. I can’t compare that with anything else,” said Luis Sr., 52, who works as an operations manager for an importer of Chilean salmon.
Although he was elated, he also experienced some trepidation at first.
“New York’s a big city … and he was 25, so, for me, he was still a kid,” he said about his son, who goes by “Luismi,” since his middle name is Miguel.
“You read a lot of stories about professional athletes that lose track in those big cities, but the environment at the Mets was a good one,” he continued.
Luis Sr., who is called “Luisma,” because his middle name is Manuel, also spoke about his wife’s commitment to his family.
“She was a cosmetologist in Venezula, but since we moved, she sacrificed her profession to help me with Luis and his brother,” he said, referring to their other son, Samuel.
“Actually I was on a college tour once where I went all the way from Miami up to Virginia and my mom went behind the bus following it and watched us play wherever we played,” Luis Jr. said.
Now, the proud parents watch their son’s games together on TV.
“I’m very superstitious. In my house, my wife and I, we’re switching spots on the couch,” he said. “If he’s having a good game here, I’ll sit there the whole game. Tomorrow, I’ll sit in the same place.”
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