{"id":9586,"date":"2011-11-13T22:30:34","date_gmt":"2011-11-14T03:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/?p=9586"},"modified":"2011-11-13T22:49:13","modified_gmt":"2011-11-14T03:49:13","slug":"baseball-player-rescued-from-kidnappers-thanks-to-god-he-gave-me-the-miracle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/11\/baseball-player-rescued-from-kidnappers-thanks-to-god-he-gave-me-the-miracle","title":{"rendered":"Baseball player rescued from kidnappers: &#8220;Thanks to God, He gave me the miracle&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I was always praying to God, and thanks to God, He gave me the miracle of sending me these wonderful people,&#8221; proclaimed Washington Nationals baseball player Wilson Ramos after security forces rescued him from kidnappers demanding millions of dollars.<\/p>\n<p>A SWAT team of the Venezuela&#8217;s National Guard and\u00a0police rescued the 24-year-old Major League Baseball rookie catcher two days after he was abducted from his mother&#8217;s home in that South American nation.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_9588\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9588\" style=\"width: 275px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2011\/11\/Wilson-Ramos-2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9588\" title=\"Wilson Ramos 2\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2011\/11\/Wilson-Ramos-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"275\" height=\"235\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-9588\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rookie catcher Wilson Ramos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;The truth is I&#8217;m still very nervous, but thanks to God everything turned out well,&#8221; Ramos told told the Caracas daily newspaer\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eluniversal.com\/caracas\/sucesos\/111111\/localizan-con-vida-a-wilson-ramos\" target=\"_blank\">la\u00a0<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eluniversal.com\/caracas\/sucesos\/111111\/localizan-con-vida-a-wilson-ramos\" target=\"_blank\">Universal<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0He described a\u00a0gunfight between his abductors and police in the mountainous region of Montalban.\u00a0He told the\u00a0<em>Washington\u00a0Post<\/em>: &#8220;There were many shots fired. I could not do anything but get under the bed, to pray, to cry, and then I felt a great relief when I heard the police yell my name. That is when I responded, because I could not even speak.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Being a step away from death is something that changes your life completely. It is something one cannot easily forget,&#8221; Ramos told\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eluniversal.com\/caracas\/sucesos\/111111\/localizan-con-vida-a-wilson-ramos\" target=\"_blank\">la\u00a0<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eluniversal.com\/caracas\/sucesos\/111111\/localizan-con-vida-a-wilson-ramos\" target=\"_blank\">Universal<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is beyond any comparison. I never thought I would go through something like this,&#8221; he said<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_9592\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9592\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/files\/2011\/11\/798346.jpg.520.360.thumb_.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-9592\" title=\"798346.jpg.520.360.thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2011\/11\/798346.jpg.520.360.thumb_-300x207.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"207\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-9592\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ramos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;Mike Rizzo, general manager for the Nationals, was also happy to hear the news.\u00a0&#8220;Though details are limited and we have not yet talked directly with Wilson, we are thrilled with reports that he has been rescued,&#8221; Rizzo said in a statement. &#8220;We greatly appreciate all the prayers and thoughts of all who have joined us in wishing for this conclusion to what has been a nightmarish 48 hours. We are eager to see Wilson and let him know just how many all over the world have been waiting for this news.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Kidnapping has become an increasing threat to the middle and upper-classes in Venezuela.<\/p>\n<p>In the 113 games he played during his 2011 rookie season with the Nationals, Ramos had a .267 batting average with 15 home runs and 52 runs batted in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I was always praying to God, and thanks to God, He gave me the miracle of sending me these wonderful people,&#8221; proclaimed Washington Nationals baseball player Wilson Ramos after security forces rescued him from kidnappers demanding millions of dollars. A SWAT team of the Venezuela&#8217;s National Guard and\u00a0police rescued the 24-year-old Major League Baseball rookie&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[988],"tags":[1839,1840],"class_list":["post-9586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-athlete","tag-venezuela","tag-wilson-ramos"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Baseball player rescued from kidnappers: &quot;Thanks to God, He gave me the miracle&quot;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/11\/baseball-player-rescued-from-kidnappers-thanks-to-god-he-gave-me-the-miracle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Baseball player rescued from kidnappers: &quot;Thanks to God, He gave me the miracle&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&#8220;I was always praying to God, and thanks to God, He gave me the miracle of sending me these wonderful people,&#8221; proclaimed Washington Nationals baseball player Wilson Ramos after security forces rescued him from kidnappers demanding millions of dollars. 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