Antonio Enrique Álvarez Cisneros (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈalβaɾes]; born 9 May 1979) is a Venezuelan political operative of the government of Nicolas Maduro and a former professional baseball player.
In addition to his playing in the 2002 All-Star Futures Game and the 2006 World Baseball Classic, he usually hit line drives into the infield or deep into the outfield, ran the bases aggressively, and crashed into walls in pursuit of fly balls.
[2] At age 25, Álvarez was ranked by Baseball America as one of the top ten prospects in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization,[4] but was never able to fulfill the potential that he showed in the Minor Leagues.
Álvarez collected a .474 batting average in the 2002 spring training and impressed the Pittsburgh organization as much with his enthusiasm and magnetic personality.
Álvarez succeeded despite suffering personal adversity, missing the last month of the 2002 season at Altoona to return home to Venezuela to be with his father, who was battling leukemia.
Once his father showed signs of recovery, Álvarez got the call to join the big club in late October.
[1] In 2003, Álvarez batted .298/.361/.470 with nine homers and 53 RBI, while stealing 22 bases in 106 games for Triple-A Nashville Sounds, significant numbers as he spent two stints on the disabled list.
[6] Starting his political career in 2013, Álvarez ran as a United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV in Spanish) candidate for mayor of the Sucre Municipality, but was defeated by Carlos Ocariz.
[2] Then, in September 2014 Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced a reshuffle of his Cabinet and appointed Álvarez as the new Minister of Youth and Sports.