Octavio Becerra Went From Taquero to Being Signed as a Minor League Player With the LA Dodgers — Here’s His Story

Octavio Becerra has been hitting things with a bat since he was a little kid, so say his parents. A new video produced by the MLB called “93 MPH Tacos” tells a unique story about an aspiring pitcher and taquero who worked at his uncle’s taqueria while training to be a major league star.

The 12-minute video offers an inside look at what it takes to be noticed by scouts from Major League Baseball. In Becerra’s case, that meant long hours working, training, and studying, searching for the perfect balance of improving his skills without wearing out his arm.

At one point, his father says he was criticized for going easy on his son but watched as other kids with a lot of potential blew out their arms early on in their careers. In fact, Becerra had the support of his entire family, who pushed him to do his best while allowing him to learn more about himself in the process of learning all of these different skills.

Becerra recalls a story about his early days at the taqueria, where he was afraid to disappoint his uncle after dropping one of the orders he was sent to deliver, leading him to pick the order up off the ground and stuff it back in the box, rocks and all, to avoid getting caught. The customer then called back and asked for a new order without any rocks in it.

The passion for both food and baseball has helped make Becerra the intelligent, hard-working, and well-rounded person he is today, along with a network of friends and family members who supported him every step of the way. Even when he found himself getting sidetracked by his love for soccer and his hatred for running, Becerra had people around him who kept him on the right track, even when it was difficult.

Now, he’s making them all proud by playing minor league ball with the LA Dodgers, who drafted him after a scout watched him pitch while Becerra played for the Mexican League.

He only pitched one inning during the game to give others a chance, but the Dodgers scout had Becerra show him what he was capable of later on and eventually signed him on the spot.

In finding the parallels between striving for greatness in food and sports, “93 MPH Tacos” is both a universal story and an extremely intimate and personal one about one player’s path to success, one that may seem unconventional to some but was ultimately the only path Becerra could have taken to get to where he is today.