MLB catcher Yan Gomes is set to enter Barry University’s Wall of Fame

Yan Gomes remembers seeing the Brazilian flag.

This May 17 will mark a dozen years since the former Barry University star became the first Brazilian to make his Major League Baseball debut.

Playing in Toronto for the Blue Jays against the visiting New York Yankees, Gomes remembers looking up at the crowd of 31,266 fans who were in the Rogers Center that night.

“I was taking it all in,” Gomes said, “and I saw one fan with a sign that said, ‘Welcome Gomes,’ and he had a picture of the Brazilian flag.

“That meant so much to me. It made me realize that this was about more than just myself.”

This Thursday night promises to be another one of those memorable moments for Gomes as he will be inducted into Barry’s Wall of Fame.

Gomes played just one season for the Bucs (2009), hitting .405 with 17 doubles, 21 homers, 92 RBI, a .775 slugging percentage and a .480 on-base percentage.

He set school records for hitting streak (30 games) and RBI, and he became the program’s initial first-team All-American.

Rated the top catcher in NCAA Division II in 2009, Gomes was drafted in the 10^th round, and, three years later, he made his aforementioned MLB debut.

This year, Gomes, 36, will enter spring training as the Chicago Cubs’ starting catcher.

But, before he begins his 12^th year in the majors, it’s worth going back to where it all began.

Gomes is from the state of Sao Paulo and, more specifically, a town called Mogi das Cruzes. His father, Decio, is a tennis pro, and his mother, Claudia, was a swimmer at Texas A&M.

As a kid, Gomes played soccer and tennis, and he also had local coaches – some who were Cuban and others with roots in Japan – who taught him baseball at the age of seven.

“Playing baseball in Brazil is like playing hockey in South Florida,” Gomes said. “It’s unusual.”

Gomes said he learned from both his Cuban and Japanese coaches.

“The Cubans were thumpers – bigger and stronger -- super raw talents,” Gomes said. “One coach was a switch-hitter, and he would hit 400- or 500-foot bombs in batting practice.

“On the Japanese side, I learned the fundamentals. If we were hitting off a tee, we would do it a thousand times until we did it correctly. The coaches were focused, meticulous and disciplined, and it taught me about work ethic.”

Gomes’ father, Decio, said he is grateful to the instruction his son received in Brazil.

“Yan was lucky to have great coaches,” Decio said, “especially a Cuban coach named Augusto Fonseca.”

When Gomes was 12, he and his family moved to Miami, settling in Kendall.

“I didn’t speak English, and it was tough,” Gomes said. “But when the spring came around, baseball spoke its own language.”

Gomes played his final three high-school seasons at Southridge, helping the Spartans start the 2005 campaign with 19 consecutive wins.

He also helped the Florida Bombers summer-ball team win the 2006 Wood Bat Association 18-under national title.

Gomes earned a scholarship to play for the Tennessee Volunteers, where he became a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American, hitting .310 with eight homers and 47 RBIs.

As a sophomore in 2008, he made second-team All-SEC, hitting .316 with five homers and 35 RBI.

However, told he was unwanted by the new coaching staff, Gomes transferred to Barry, and it turned out to be a great decision.

Former Barry coach Marc Pavao, who had his team ranked No. 1 in the nation for part of that 2009 season, said Gomes “changed the culture” of the program.

“We all knew Yan was talented,” Pavao said. “But there are a lot of talented players. The ones who have careers in the majors like Yan are the players who are also selfless hard workers who lead by example.”

Indeed, that 2009 Bucs squad finished 44-11, winning the Sunshine State Conference title for the first time in program history.

“At about midseason, I remember us realizing we were a really good team,” Gomes said. “We started to believe.”

The same belief has helped Gomes in his MLB career.

In his debut game, Gomes – facing Yankees pitcher Phil Hughes – struck out on four pitches in his first at-bat. That included one swing and a miss on a pitch that Gomes estimates was two feet over his head. Gomes recovered, however, and he finished 2-for-3 off of Hughes.

Gomes went on to win a Silver Slugger award in 2014 while with Cleveland, hitting .278 with 21 homers and 74 RBI, and the latter two statistics are still career highs.

In 2018, Gomes – still with Cleveland -- made his only All-Star Game as he hit .266 with 16 homers and 48 RBI.

Gomes hit .223 with 12 homers and 43 RBI in 2019, helping the Washington Nationals win the World Series for the only time in franchise history.

Last season, even at age 35, Gomes hit .267 and led Cubs catchers in homers (10) and RBI (63). He also had the second-biggest workload of his career (116 games).

“Yan had a phenomenal year for us,” Cubs president Jed Hoyer told the media after last season. “He had a remarkable number of big hits.

“Our coaching staff regards him almost as a player-coach because he sees things as a veteran. He’s a favorite among the coaches and his teammates.”

Gomes lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, which is where he met his wife, Jenna. She is the daughter of former pitcher Atlee Hammaker, who led the National League in ERA in his 1983 All-Star season.

Yan and Jenna have three children: daughter Brooklyn, 9; son Greyson, 6; and son William, 2.

Yet, Gomes struggled initially to get Hammaker’s approval to date Jenna, the second of his five daughters.

“He didn’t want his daughters dating ballplayers,” Gomes said. “But Jenna and I have been together 15 years since meeting in college. I think he likes me now.”

As for his impressive longevity in the majors – especially at a physically taxing position such. as catcher – Gomes attributes it to a pair of factors.

First, it’s his faith. He said he “lives for God.”

Secondly, there’s his work ethic, which goes all the way back to his youth in Brazil.

“In my first couple of years of marriage, it was probably annoying to my wife because I was always training,” Gomes said. “But I’ve never wanted to let anybody outwork me.”