''I'm Just Grateful''
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Dorian Gonzalez Jr. knows the reality in front of him this weekend.
He knows the Hurricanes will take the field for a crucial conference series against ACC foe Notre Dame. He knows Miami will be looking to bounce back after three tough games at Virginia. He knows the postseason is within reach, but the Hurricanes have to continue playing as well as they have over the course of the last month.
And Gonzalez – who was born and raised in Miami – knows Saturday’s regular-season finale against the Irish could very well be the last time he plays a game at Mark Light Field.
He expects it might be an emotional afternoon, not just for him, but for his family, including his mother, Nora, and his father, Dorian Sr.
“It’s been a dream come true,” Gonzalez said of the opportunity to be a Hurricane. “My dad, obviously, played at Miami and I live about 20 minutes from the park. Growing up as a kid, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I was going to The Light. I was going to watch games and those were my weekends. I grew up around this program. I’m pretty sure I was always wearing some sort of orange or green. And once I got older, and I got interest from the school, it was really a no-doubter for me. I wanted to stay here. I wanted to play here, in front of my family and my friends. It’s meant a lot to me.”
While plenty of Hurricanes have grown up hoping to play for their hometown program, Gonzalez – a former standout at Miami’s Belen Jesuit Preparatory School, has a far deeper connection to the Miami program than most.
His father played for the Hurricanes between 1994-1996, and Dorian Sr.’s teams advanced to Omaha and the College World Series in each of his three seasons at Miami.
Not only that, but Dorian Sr. pitched alongside the man who now leads the Hurricanes: head coach J.D. Arteaga.
The two former teammates remained close friends after their time at Miami came to an end and that friendship has helped shape Gonzalez’s journey, on and off the field.
When Gonzalez played little league, his father coached, and Arteaga was at nearly every game. Gonzalez also developed a close friendship with Arteaga’s late son, Ari, who passed away in 2018.
The younger Gonzalez and Arteaga spent much of their childhoods together, playing on the same youth teams and hosting sleepovers at each other’s homes.
Gonzalez verbally committed to play at Miami a week after his friend’s death, and before his freshman season, said he wanted to honor Ari’s memory with his play and effort while with the Hurricanes.
“I’m going to think about more ways to honor him and his legacy,” Gonzalez told MiamiHurricanes.com in 2022. “I want to form a close bond with the team and become brothers and make the team better because that’s what Ari would do.”
And there’s no doubt that throughout his four-year career at Miami, Gonzalez has been a difference-maker.
He was one of two freshmen to earn a starting role when the Hurricanes opened the 2022 season against Towson, and he hit .345 in his first 15 games. Gonzalez went on to finish the year hitting .262 with 32 runs scored, 21 RBI, seven doubles and two home runs, despite missing a month of the season with an injury.
As a sophomore, he lost his starting job at second base, but, Arteaga noted, Gonzalez kept fighting and did the best he could to help his team whenever he was called on.
His resiliency paid off and as a junior, he regained his spot in the starting lineup and went on to hit .303 with 48 RBI, 34 runs scored, a team-leading 17 doubles and eight home runs.
This season, his final one in orange and green, Gonzalez is a team captain and is hitting .262 with 41 RBI, 33 runs scored, 11 doubles and seven home runs.
But, his coach says, it’s Gonzalez’s leadership that has made the biggest difference for Miami, especially given the Hurricanes’ struggles in the month of March.
“You could look at this season as almost like a microcosm of his career. We got off to a really good start, then we struggled there in the middle and then we got going again,” Arteaga said. “We talk about it being like a rollercoaster. You have your ups and your downs. … His career has been a reflection of our season. … He’s experienced it all and while he’s a guy that is not a loud, vocal leader, he is a sounding board in the locker room for a lot of guys. He’s been very important, a very important piece of our team.”
Added Gonzalez, “I would say I learned a lot from my first three years. My first two years, we won a lot of games. … We hosted regionals. Those were winning teams and from that experience, I know what it takes to win. And then going back to last year, which was one of the worst years in program history, I learned from that, too. I learned what we need to fix to get the Miami program back to where it should be. Basically, just preaching to the guys, ‘Look, our goal from day one, we’re getting to Omaha. … We’re not going to get down on ourselves if something goes wrong. Our goal is Omaha, and we always have to remember that, through the highs and lows.’”
Now, Gonzalez wants to make sure he – and his team – finish strong.
He says he hopes they’ll take the lessons they’ve learned this season into their final two games against Notre Dame – and beyond.
He also hopes that his efforts on the field and in the clubhouse will help him leave a legacy at Miami that won’t be forgotten.
“I would say just overall, me playing here at Miami, I’m just extremely grateful. Not everyone gets this opportunity. I know I’m a hometown kid who had family ties to Miami and it just means so much to me,” Gonzalez said “My family is here. My friends are here. My grandparents come to games. That’s really special for me and I’m extremely grateful to just be a Hurricane.
“Being at Miami just made me an overall better person. It’s made me a leader. I’m graduating with a finance degree. … I had to grind it out. But I’m a better baseball player than when I got here. I’m a better man than when I got here. I’m just grateful.”
