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Osuna had to quit school at 12 to work in the fields near Los Mochis, Mexico, digging potatoes and picking tomatoes. He has twin brothers and a sister, all younger, and his dad pitched for 22 years in the Mexican League, but there was little money in that.

The family was “very poor,” Osuna says.

He was embarrassed not to be in school with his peers.

“It was a hard road,” he said. “When I was growing up everyone was against me. Everybody. Leaving school at 12 in Mexico, people think you’re crazy, you’re lazy.”

But he could pitch. After working from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m., he practised baseball with his father in the evening, and by 16 he was pitching for his father’s old team in the Mexican League, which is roughly equivalent to Triple-A.

Shortly thereafter, when he was still 16, the Jays signed him for US$1.5-million. Everyone was not against him any more. Suddenly, he had new friends with their hands out. But he used his newfound wealth wisely.

“I gave my mother a house,” he said. “I put my brothers and sister into school. I bought a rental house. And I invested. And I put some money aside for the future.”

The teenager had become the family breadwinner.

“All the responsibility,” he said proudly, “is on me.”

In that respect, he grew up fast. But plenty of teenager remained in the newly minted pro pitcher. When he played in Lansing, Mich., two years ago, he often wore a cap with OSUNA inscribed on the front and was not shy about flashing cash. But he also worked long hours, with no one around, studying video, trying to figure out how to get better.