The three-hour, 1,276-mile flight from Atlanta to Ramón Villeda Morales International Airport in San Pedro Sula, Honduras took pitcher Andrew Heaney to another world to open his eyes and his heart.
He was a man on a mission, making a return trip this month to a place unlike anything he’d seen growing up near Oklahoma City, or while playing in the comforts of major-league ballparks as a Miami Marlins rookie in 2014 and the Angels’ back-of-the-rotation starter last season.
The 24-year-old former 2012 first-round selection knows how cloistered a baseball player’s life can be. During the season, his attention is focused on throwing a ball 60 feet, 6 inches and hitting strike zones that never expand far enough to “the think about what’s going on in the rest of the world,” he said.