BONIFACIO Emilio

General
CLUB HISTORY
He was signed by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001, and made his MLB debut with the organisation in 2007. After a brief spell with the Washington Nationals in 2008, he was traded to the Florida Marlins and spent four seasons with the franchise. He joined the Toronto Blue Jays in November 2012 and went on to play for four more MLB teams until 2017. After two seasons in the minor and independent leagues, he played three games for the Nationals in 2020. He has spent the 2019/20 and 2020/21 northern hemisphere winters with Dominican team Tigres del Licey. (baseball-reference.com, 08 Aug 2020)

OTHER ACTIVITIES
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, he began interviewing baseball personalities through his social media. A year later, he launched a dedicated social media channel for the project. "I am not a journalist and did not have any training, but little by little I've been learning to get the most out of my guests. My goal is to tell the story of what a baseball player does, and their commitment with society." He has also launched an online store, selling sporting goods and other products. (loviste64.com, 01 Jan 2020; quierox.com, 2021; espndeportes.espn.com, 10 Apr 2021)

DIFFICULT TIMES
In 2016 his newborn son Gael underwent a liver transplant. He says the experience convinced him to make changes to his lifestyle. "That my child had to experience this, that was the sign. Those were awful moments. I knelt down and asked for forgiveness for everything, and promised to change my life if my son pulled through, because the doctors did not stop working, but he did not respond. Shortly after my son returned to normal, and although my wife and I did not stop crying for a long time, I saw the sign that everything would change for the better." (elcaribe.com.do, 01 Feb 2017)