Player Profile: Brant Alyea

I have one card of Brant Alyea, from 1990 ProCards.

Playing career: Outfielder Brant Alyea played six seasons in the Blue Jays, Rangers and Mets organizations, hitting .281 with 49 HR and 299 RBI.

Interesting stories: His father, Brant Alyea Sr., played several years in the major leagues. He had a one-night stand in February of 1966 while playing winter ball in Nicaragua. He came back in November for the next season to find out he had a son. Two months later political trouble erupted in Nicaragua, forcing him to flee the country, and he lost touch with his son’s family. The elder Alyea drifted away from baseball and ended up working in an Atlantic City nightclub in the mid-1980s. His boss read an article in Baseball Card News about sons of former major leaguers active in baseball, and that is how he found out his son was in the United States, playing pro baseball. Brant Jr., after growing up in great hardship in Nicaragua, seeing a couple of friends get killed in that country’s fighting, had defected to Canada to sign with the Blue Jays. Thanks to the article in Baseball Card News, father and son finally reunited after almost eighteen years.

Where he is now: General Manager of Toyota of Goldsboro in North Carolina.

My memories: Only know him from his card.

Google Autocomplete results: Brant Alyea Jr. is third when you type Brant Al, between Brant Alyea and Brant Alyea Baseball. There do not appear to be any other prominent Brant Alyeas.

Coming up next: The next profile will be Tom Amante.