Early in 2024, Diego and Vanessa were living separate, very different lives. Diego had just returned home from New York City, brimming with the optimism of a fresh NYU grad. Vanessa was celebrating eight years in San Diego, finally feeling settled after a winding journey from her Connecticut hometown through four cities.

By all accounts, their paths were never supposed to cross. But destiny had a game plan, and it was set on the dirt softball fields in Old Town.

After a night game, Diego accidentally left his glove behind. He went back to ask the umpire (Vanessa) if she’d seen it. That single question sparked an hour-long conversation on the bleachers, where they both revealed their nerdy beginnings, passion for words and stories, and lifelong devotion to baseball. Soon, Diego and Van weren’t just teammates—they were the best of friends, sharing triumphs and troubles with each other and celebrating the end of every long week together on Friday night back at the ballfield.

However, they realized after a few months that remaining “just friends” would be like hitting a triple and getting stranded on third. One spontaneous post-game karaoke night and the liquid courage of a few sojus later, they confessed to each other that they were, in fact, kindred souls who would be crushed if they didn’t at least try for a deeper connection. Diego quickly booked the first date: tickets to Dodger Stadium. And just like that, our love story got the call-up from the rec leagues to the majors.

The past two years have been a beautiful whirlwind together—celebrating major life changes, rolling with difficult blows, expanding our tastes in food, music, and media (who could have predicted that Van would become a huge anime fan?), and integrating into each other’s families, which always felt less like an introduction and more like a homecoming.

We moved in together in November 2025, and Diego proposed on Christmas Day in front of both our ecstatic families. But naturally, as Dodgers fans, we were so eager to “three-peat” that we got married at the Chula Vista City Hall on April 10, 2026. But we knew it all along, from our very first month together, that "husband and wife" was where our story was headed—and we can't wait to step up to the plate for these next innings of life and beyond.