CLEVELAND -- Since he was a child in the town of Baní in the Dominican Republic, Jose Ramirez always heard he was too small to ever make it to the major leagues.
"I started playing little league in a place known as Fortuna. To all the tournaments that my dad would take me, everyone would say, 'that little guy is a tremendous player. Look at the energy, how he plays!' But everyone also said that I would never get signed by a major league team because I was so small and skinny," said the 24-year-old Indians third baseman, who is listed at a generous 5-foot-9.
"So I started spending every night doing pull-ups. I would hold on to a bar and do 100 pull-ups; whatever I could do to try to grow. I would eat anything to gain some weight. I just always felt that I was going to be a professional one day, because nobody worked harder than I did."
Once he was a teenager, Ramírez's dad, Enrique (where he gets his 'Enriquito' nickname -- 'little Enrique') took him to one of the top baseball programs in his small town. The Dominican coach that ran it told the elder Ramírez that he could leave his son there, but it would be a waste of his time.
"He said to me, 'You know here, you don't have much of a chance.' He told my dad, 'If you want to leave him here, that's fine, but you know he's very small and he has no chance here, because I have to focus on my prospects,'" he said. "But I am a person that has always believed that even if I don't get an opportunity right then and there, I always trust that the opportunity will come."
Ramírez has proved that coach and many others wrong, as he is now having one of the best seasons for any third baseman in all of Major League Baseball.
After Wednesday's 5-3 win over the Texas Rangers, which gave the Cleveland Indians a half game lead atop the American League Central, Ramírez has an overall batting average of .321 -- best among all MLB third basemen.
Ramírez also leads all third basemen with 93 hits, 52 runs scored and a .931 OPS. His .376 on-base percentage, 24 doubles and four triples are best among third basemen in the AL. In June, Ramírez has hit .371 with 12 doubles, five home runs and 10 RBI.
"Mini me," as his close friends call him, who grew up wanting to be like Jose Reyes, now gets showered at Progressive Field with the same chants of "José! José! José!" directed at the now New York Mets third baseman.
"I always loved that player, José Reyes. I would say to myself that if I focused and worked hard and dedicated myself, I could one day be a little like him. I met him and I told him once, 'you're my favorite ballplayer.' He told me, 'Stop joking around, you should be the one teaching me how you do things!'"
Now Ramírez hopes his hard work and hot start this season is enough to earn him an All-Star Game nod.
"I hope I get to go, because I just want to have fun with the fans," Ramírez said. "I'm always reaching out to them on social media, and I am so grateful to them and the love they give me."