Photo: User Jlaff on en.wikipedia / CC BY-SA 3.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Esteban Loaiza's arc genuinely gets to me. A Tijuana-born pitcher who grafted through eight Major League clubs and peaked starting the 2003 All-Star Game for the American League, the kind of late-blooming season every journeyman dreams of. Then the second act, the drug trafficking conviction, rewrites everything. I think his story is one of the starker fall-from-grace tales in baseball, talent and discipline on the mound undone by choices off it. Watching that 2003 high collide with what came later, I can't help reading it as a cautionary tale about what comes after the cheering stops.
Overview
Esteban Antonio Loaiza Veyna [lo-EYE-sa] (born December 31, 1971) is a Mexican former professional baseball pitcher and coach. He played in Major League Baseball for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees, Washington Nationals, Oakland Athletics, and Los Angeles Dodgers. Loaiza was the American League's (AL) starting pitcher in the 2003 All-Star Game.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Esteban Loaiza
- Name (Japanese)
- エステバン・ロアイザ
- Reading
- えすてばん・ろあいざ
- Born
- December 31, 1971 (age 54)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Capricorn / Boar
- Origin
- Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- baseball player / drug trafficker
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Mar Vista High School
- University
- Private
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Baseball player — see all → · More people from Mexico →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.