Former Toronto Blue Jays third baseman José Bautista is the brand new principal proprietor of the USL Championship franchise Las Vegas Lights FC, the membership introduced on Tuesday.
“Las Vegas is the place to be and has emerged as an enormous skilled sports activities city, and I’ll do every little thing I can to push this membership ahead,” Bautista mentioned in an announcement.
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“As a soccer fan and former skilled athlete, I’m excited to be concerned with the world’s sport. Since my retirement from skilled baseball, I’ve witnessed the unimaginable development of soccer in the USA, and I sit up for sharing my love of sports activities with the Las Vegas soccer neighborhood.”
Bautista was a six-time All-Star and with a .247 profession batting common with 344 residence runs, 975 RBIs and 1,022 runs. He performed 15 seasons and donned the jersey of eight franchises alongside the best way, nevertheless it was his 2015 playoff go-ahead residence run — and the bat flip that adopted — that cemented him in Blue Jays historical past.
The tiebreaking three-run residence run within the seventh inning of a deciding Recreation 5 of the 2015 American League Division Sequence towards the Texas Rangers was capped by a memorable flip of the bat earlier than he began rounding the bases in entrance of a raucous Toronto crowd.
“I form of blacked out after the swing, listening to the roar of the gang and the emotion of the second,” Bautista advised ESPN in 2021. “I do not actually recall something specifically till I used to be catching my breath again on the bench.”
Las Vegas Lights FC have performed in USL Championship since 2018. The staff performs its residence video games at Cashman Discipline and the 2024 season begins in March.
Based on the membership’s information launch, Bautista was an early fairness accomplice for Marucci Sports activities, a baseball gear startup that was offered to Compass Diversified Holdings in 2020.
Bautista represented the Dominican Republic on the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. His management helped the D.R. staff earn a bronze medal, punctuated by a walk-off hit and his signature bat flip that sealed the win over Israel to safe the staff’s place within the semifinals.