Twins’ prospect outfielder Joe Benson was robbed at gunpoint while in Venezuela playing winter ball.
Benson’s incident actually happened prior to Wilson Ramos’ kidnapping in Venezuela. The robbery occurred after the cab he was riding in crashed. While the Spanish-speaking driver was on the phone, four men approached Benson and took all of his belongings aside from a bag with his baseball spikes and some t-shirts. “When you don’t speak the language, there’s not much you can do,” said Benson. “You can’t really beg for your life. You can’t ask them not to pull the trigger. You can’t beg for mercy. I kind of sat there in silence, let everything happen.” Benson went back to the United States a few days later to regroup, but returned to Venezuela and batted .216 (11-for-51) with four RBI during his time with Tigres de Aragua. The 22-year-old was recently ranked as the Twins’ No. 2 prospect by Baseball America and figures to open the 2012 season with Triple-A Rochester.
Source: foxsportsnorth.com