The Cuban player Loidel Rodriguez, one of the 12 athletes who left the National Baseball Team at the U-23 World Cup in Mexico, confessed that he did not elope in front of his teammates out of respect for them.
Rodríguez offered an interview to AmericaTV in which he narrated how jumped from a second floor, using a palm from the gardens of the Hotel where he was staying, in order to bypass the security system that watches over the team.
“I did not want to make the escape in front of my teammates because I thought that with that they disrespected them. I decided to launch myself from the second floor,” said Rodríguez. “I jumped chasing a dream that many athletes seek, to play in the MLB. That’s why I’m here, “he said.
In his testimony the young man was shocked by his decision, but sure of the goal you are pursuing as an athlete and confident in future career opportunities.
“It’s a moral issue, I didn’t want them to see me leave them there, alone,” Rodríguez confessed.
Journalist Juan Manuel Cao was unable to understand the ethical conflict that a player suffers when deserting from a team, so the player’s agent Carlos perez he had to explain the connotation this has for many athletes, from an emotional point of view.
“When a person defects there is the feeling that a friend or a brother is leaving. Most of the players who do they do not say goodbye, nor do they count the decision nobody, “Pérez said.
Rodríguez confirmed that he made the decision to leave the team convinced of his chances of ever playing in the Major Leagues. He assured that no one pressured him to make “his leap” and said that he contacted him baseball agent after seeking asylum in the United States.
Pérez announced that his client has already been accepted to join the team of the Miami-Dade College. This would be the first step to be able to enter the amateur draft in June 2022.
The agent had previously said that neither he nor other colleagues of his besiege the players on the island, as the Cuban government pretends to show.
“The biggest culprit is neither the agents nor the teams, they are themselves [el Estado] because we agents do not know the phone numbers of any player. They are the players who contact us because there is internet and the information circulates ”, said Pérez.
Rodríguez is the second player to arrive in the United States after leaving the Cuban national team. The 22-year-old is a native of Sancti Spíritus.
Recently Julita Osendi indicated in CiberCuba that he failed agreement between the Cuban Baseball Federation and the MLB It has caused massive flight of players in the national team.
“Who would have believed that the Cuban Federation was an NGO? When such an agreement is not finalized, the Cubans are still the only ones who cannot reach the Big Top if they do not stay,” the journalist commented.
The Cuban State does not include these analyzes in its comments on what is happening in the world of baseball, a national sport. However, it does undertake a harsh campaign of defamation and discredit against the players who desert that affects their image before the country, before their community and many times generates conflicts even within their families.
An example of defamations are the words of the communist Yusuam Palacios who lashed out on Sunday against the athletes who leave the national team, ensuring that they act with “ideological weakness and cowardice.” He said that they are people with a “denigrating attitude.”
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