Daddy Yankee: A Gunshot Wound Ruined The Reggaeton ‘Gasolina’ Star’s Chance To Play Professional Baseball

Daddy Yankee, aka Raymond Ayala, told TMZ that he had the chance to become a baseball star, but his dreams were deferred after a gunshot wound ended his chances to play with the Seattle Mariners.

Latin rap king Daddy Yankee says that he was shot as he took a break after recording a mix tape in the studio. In an interview with MTV News, Daddy Yankee describes the shooting that left a bullet lodged in his hip.

“It was in V.K. [a.k.a. Villa Kennedy in Santurce] — the place that I’m from,” he recalls. “I was just vibing with the homies. And all of a sudden: Boom, boom! I saw the crossfire and I got caught in an exchange of bullets. I was running, running, running, running — but I got hit. It broke my bone, like, quick. In an instant: bam! I went under a van when I was stumbling and that was the only reason I survived. It took me more than a year to recuperate from that day. I would spend more than a year in the hospital, in recovery — but little by little [I recovered].”

Daddy Yankee told MTV News, that his own shooting was not the first time that he had been affected by gun violence. In the early 1980s, when Daddy Yankee was just 6-years-old, his baseball coach and manager, Juan Cintron, was gunned down in front of him. It was the first time that he realized that life is precious and easily lost.

“I got that memory in my head, you know. Since I was a little kid, I was in shock, because he was my manager. Then I went to his burial and seeing my manager right there… I couldn’t sleep back in those days. When you’re a kid, you’re just shocked: Your role model is being killed, and that is something that you will never forget.”

Lucky for him, he was destined to become a star, despite the fact that he lost the chance to play professional baseball, a game that many poor Latin American boys hope to play professionally as a way of getting out of the inner city barrios.

San Juan, Puerto Rico, native Daddy Yankee came on the scene in 2003 with the catchy Latino hit “Segurosqui.” Yankee continued to help popularize the unique sound of reggaeton, the Latin-Caribbean genre of music that blends tropical music with hip hop, American rap, and elements of Jamaican reggae. Today, he is one of Latin America’s biggest celebrities. Last year, Inquisitr reported on the gay rumors that have continued to follow Daddy Yankee, rumors that he has always denied.

[Photo Credit: YouTube]