By SwingCompleto / contacto@swingcompleto.com
The escape of talented Industriales pitcher Brian Chi of the team that reached the discussion of the bronze medal in the U-23 World Cup in Mexico, in addition to expanding to nine the record for the most stays in an international baseball event, it allows one of the most important facts to be brought to light. emotional events that took place in the Florida Olympic Qualification four months ago.
In that competition, despite the fact that many thought that Chi would follow in the footsteps of several of his companions, he finally boarded the plane to Havana taking with him many things for his family, including a phone for his grandmother who insisted so much on our friend and collaborator Humberto Monier, owner of the preferred telephone company of Cuban players in Miami, Movil Server.
The other thing that also happened and that is the essence of this article, was that farewell full of emotion at the hotel in West Palm Beach where the Cuban cast stayed, with one of those who decided to open a new path in professionalism .
We refer to the hug between Chi and his partner in Industriales, fellow pitcher Andy Rodríguez, who resigned to continue his contract in Japan, thus breaking with the Cuban Federation and opting for a signature in baseball in the United States.
Humbertico witnessed that scene that actually represented a very temporary farewell to what just happened in Mexico. While that reaction made it clear that Brian knew his friend’s intentions, it is likely that the former had not yet decided what would happen in his immediate future.
It was a high risk assumed by Chi, because with the issue of the pandemic he ran the real risk of not participating in the under-23 contest, or that he was not included in the team for whatever reason, which then would have forced him to leave for the sea or wait later for a new voyage to arrive.
When Chi and Andy said goodbye at the hotel, the latter had several days to stay in the United States because his passage to Japan was half a week later, although several already suspected that he would make the decision not to return to the Asian country.
Obviously, for his roommate and provincial teammate it was a certainty, either because Rodríguez himself had told him about it or because of logical deductions confirmed by the way they said goodbye.
Many consider that Andy’s decision was wrong, not to stay in the United States, but not to travel later to a third country to obtain residency and sign in the international draft, since he is now forced to enter the amateur draft for a lower salary and luck and truth in terms of the organization that obtains it within a list in which dozens of North American pitchers with equal or greater talent than him will appear, especially in terms of the speed of his fastball.
Right now Chi has two fundamental alternatives in his hands. If you cross the border and take refuge in the country where you were four months ago during the pre-Olympic, you will go through the same process as your friend, but if, on the contrary, you stay in Mexico or another country in the area to have free agency, you can aspire to a better salary than Rodríguez.
Many things will depend on his determination, possibly having the advice of some close to him and even the agent who will represent him, including embracing his friend again in totally different circumstances. On this occasion there will surely be crying again, but it will have a less sad and uncertain nuance than that hug that everyone knows today but that at the time only a few knew to avoid questions and even problems for Brian when he returned to Cuba .
With the loss of his star reliever Industriales, he was in a very complex situation for next season. Losing their main starter now makes the outlook for Guillermo Carmona’s Lions very dark, taking into account the general weakness of a staff of talented pitchers but with few realities.
Precisely the two most important say goodbye to Industrial and of his fans without hugs, but with the regret and even the tears of many, both the fans and the players who stay longer, these who will no longer be there to continue a tradition that continues to grow every day and that is far from have an end.
In fact, this latest international tournament has broken Cuba by far the record for the most escaped athletes in a baseball event. The nine casualties now far exceed the five industrialists who in 1996 put aside Pedro Medina’s squad that participated in the last Champion Clubs attended by a team from the Island.