Astros manager Joe Espada cherishes fatherhood

HOUSTON – Waking up on Father’s Day, the first thing Joe Espada looks forward to is spending the morning with his wife and daughters. His daughters, Eliana and Viviana, wake Espada up with homemade cards and gifts – items the Astros’ manager treasures more than anything else on this day.

Espada always knew he wanted to be a father after seeing first-hand how hard and rewarding fatherhood is through his own relationship with his father Loly. The support system Espada has, especially his wife Pamela, has led him to be the father he is today.

“Being a good father, you have to have a great wife and a support system that allows you to be the best version of myself when I’m around my kids and around my wife and around my players,” Espada said.

Joe Espada credits wife

The support from Espada’s wife not only has been crucial in Espada’s role as a father, but also in his position with the Astros. With the season in full swing, being able to spend time with both his family and team is important to Espada.

“If it wasn’t for [my family], I would not be able to come here and enjoy spending time with my second family, which is my team,” Espada said. “The support that my wife gives me, the sacrifices that my kids and my wife make for me to do this is something that I will never be able to repay them.”

Espada said his faith has a strong foundation in his daily life. The relationship Espada has with his faith has helped him focus on his family and stay humble.

“One day this job will pass,” Espada said. “I will one day stop being a coach, but I will never stop being a father and a husband, so I got to make sure that I’m really, really good and grow doing those things every day.”

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The lessons Espada has learned throughout fatherhood have translated to his career as a longtime coach and eventual manager. Espada, who is in his second season as the Astros’ manager, stresses that in order for the players to win major league games they also must remember the importance of “life outside the field.”

“There’s things outside the field that are more important than the games,” he said. “(Like) being a father, being a husband, being a brother, being someone in the community that people look up to and say, ‘You know what? I can see how this guy is a great father. I see how these guys’ kids love him because he’s got that fatherly look to him.’ And I think that’s very important.”

Father-daughter bond

This past April, Espada caught the ceremonial first pitch on Autism Awareness Night from his youngest daughter Viviana Espada. The two find themselves looking back on these moments, bringing them even closer.

“We still talk about those memories,” Joe Espada said. “We still scroll on the phone and look at the pictures, because it’s what brings us together. It’s the moments that I will share forever.”

The father-daughter bonding moments look a little different for Espada and his eldest daughter Eliana Espada because she is a teen, he says.

Whether it be spending time together in his daughter’s bedroom talking about school or driving to get ice cream, Espada continues to foster his relationship with Eliana as she grows older.

“I love both of them the same amount,” Espada said. “They both got to see that daddy loves both kids the same. I got to make sure that I spend the same amount of time with both of them, but the relationship is different based on their ages. My kids are great. I’m blessed and lucky to have them.”