Between the minors, majors and independent leagues, David Peralta has appeared in 917 baseball games. That means he’s heard The Star-Spangled Banner at least 917 times, not to mention the times he heard it before games he spent on the bench, before spring training games, and before any other sporting event the Diamondbacks outfielder ever has attended on U.S. soil.



For the first 29 years of his life, it was the anthem of someone else’s country. Peralta was born and raised in Venezuela and has the Venezuelan flag tattooed on his arm. In 2015, he married an American woman and it became the anthem of his wife’s country. The couple had their first child last fall, so it became the anthem of his daughter’s country, too.



Now it’s his anthem as well. In November, Peralta completed the lengthy naturalization process to become a U.S. citizen. Thursday will be his first Opening Day as an American.



“This country has given to me the...