The Kansas City Royals saved three puppies that were trapped in a fire on Thursday. The Royals were traveling to Cleveland for game six of the American League Division Series and stopped to help. The Royals posted a video on their Twitter page of Palacios rescuing the dogs, including one inside a truck. Later that night, the Royals beat the Indians in a game seven and advanced to the ALCS.
The San Francisco Giants, still looking for a closer, came to the rescue of a litter of puppies when team closer, Jose Mijares, was injured. Mijares shattered his hand and appeared to be lost for the season, but the Giants had a contingency plan. The team signed a reliever and sent him down to the minors. This post will go in depth about how this all happened, and also touch on the Royals being the best team in baseball.
The Royals were in an early hole, but left as one of the best teams in baseball thanks to the contributions of a number of new players. One of those new players is reliever Rey Palacios, who has quickly become an important member of the Royals bullpen. Palacios was signed to a minor league deal by Kansas City in December of 2017, and has worked his way up to the Majors since then.
Baseball fans know pitchers as people who are supposed to put out fires, but the catcher who retired two decades ago made an important save Monday. Rey Palacios, who played for the Kansas City Royals from 1988 to 1990, played a crucial role in saving eight dogs from the fire.
And it turned out to be a day job for a man who saved lives after baseball.
Ray Palacios’ career with the Kansas City Royals lasted 101 games
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Palacios, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, attended Kingsborough Community College but was not called up to Major League Baseball. He signed with the Detroit Tigers at age 19 in 1982, and joined the Toledo Mud Hens in 1988.
The Tigers traded him to the Royals at the end of the minor league season, and Kansas City took Palacios to the big leagues for a cup of coffee. It was the beginning of three seasons of back-and-forth between the American League squad and its Triple-A division in Omaha.
By the time he ended his career with the Royals, where one of his teammates was Bo Jackson, Palacios had played in 101 games and hit .193 with three home runs and 17 RBI.
He quit baseball in 1991, but joined the California Angels the following year. During the 1993 season, he played one game for the Baltimore Orioles in Rochester, New York. The Orioles let him go in the middle of the season.
At the age of 30 and with no prospect of continuing baseball, Palacios knew what he wanted to do next. Several of his family members worked as firefighters in New York City, and Palacios had his own experience training in the Auxiliary Firefighter program; he too wanted to fight fires.
Retired catcher in Rochester to fight fire
The Kansas City Royals acquired Ray Palacios in a trade with the Detroit Tigers in 1988 for pitcher Ted Power. | Will Newton/Getty Images
A move to Rochester played a major role in Palacios’ future. Since the New York Fire Department was not hiring recruits over the age of 29, he decided to apply to a mid-sized city on the south shore of Lake Ontario.
Passing the exam was easy, especially considering his additional education. When he was 17, Palacios saw smoke coming from a Brooklyn apartment and bystanders calling for a child in distress. According to the Rochester Business Journal, Palacios waded through the smoke with an air bag and found the child. When the ladder was blocked by fire, he went in through a window and climbed the ledge before Brooklyn’s 101st Ladder Company arrived on the scene and helped him down.
You can hit 10 grand slams in the World Series, but it doesn’t compare to saving a life, Palacios told the newspaper.
Palacios has known the members of this fire unit for years, and he counts the members of this unit among the friends he made during the September 11. terrorist attacks that destroyed the two towers of the World Trade Center.
Rey Palacios to the rescue
According to Deputy Chief Jim Ryan, firefighters rescued 5 puppies and 3 dogs from the home. All dogs are with their owners and are doing well. The fire brigade was called to the scene shortly after 9 a.m. for smoke coming from the house and shortly afterwards for an entrapped person. The FF have… https://t.co/3A818YheMI pic.twitter.com/a 0vY34Bhttps://t.co/a 0vY34B
– Rich Healy (@r_heals13) 21 June 2021
After passing the exam, Mr. Palacios had to wait more than two years before a post became available with the Rochester Fire Department. It will soon be his 25th. He is semi-famous locally because of his baseball background and his decision to move into the community as a first responder.
Looking back, I realize how lucky I was, Palacios said in an interview in 2020.
Palacios did so on the morning of the 21st. In June 2021, he was in the local news when his car dealership received a call about a fire in an apartment on the west side of Rochester, near the historic museum and Susan B. Anthony’s home.
The fire department quickly determined that no one was home. However, they learn that five puppies and three older dogs may have been locked in the apartment.
Firefighters went in through a window and found the dogs. A local television station filmed the event. At the center of the action, of course, was Palacios, who snatched the puppies from a firefighter in the apartment and gave them to another upstairs, who carried the dogs to safety.
The local news reported that all the dogs were safe and that the Red Cross was helping the homeless families.
All statistics are from Baseball Reference.
COMPARED TO: The real fireworks of the 1985 World Series came the day after Don Denkinger’s failedcall.
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