He used to have a batting center and now he has a baseball cathedral, a Cuban teacher is the favorite of the stars

Ricardo Sosa had a hitting center. These days, this master of baseball players has erected a true cathedral of baseball, a kind of high-performance center where cutting-edge technology is intertwined with the experience of those who have worked for years with the best of the stars.

If before his batting cages were in Babcock Park in Hialeah, now Sosa has a majestic facility at 215 SE and 10 Ave, in the same city, because he would never leave the place where he raised his family and where his children play baseball. and practice alongside their father.

On the same day, not only do dozens of Major League Baseball players pass through there, but also first-rate stars such as Giancarlo Stanton or Miguel Cabrera, veterans such as José Iglesias or Miguel Rojas, and prospects whose history we still do not know, until some day.

Sosa, who came from Cuba at age 18 and came close to making it to the Arizona franchise until injuries prevented him, is revered as one of the best offensive coaches in the United States, and his batting cages are kind of mecca to visit for apprentices and experts

The expansion of your batting school is amazing.

“COVID made me move from place to place and I had the opportunity to do something in my own way, in my style. What I had in mind. I always wanted to do an all-in-one, where not only the bat was practiced, but also fielding, pitching. But I also did it thinking of my two children.”

In that way?

“They both play ball and I never wanted my wife to be hanging around. So it was better to have a place where she could bring my children and I could spend more time with them. See them train. So I set up this place with a gym, fitness, pitching, a therapy area. It is a professional complex, but everything was inspired by my children. I didn’t see them before, now they’re with me.”

How do you keep improving yourself so that Major League athletes believe in your work?

“In recent months we have had an immense improvement. A few months ago we were doing some tests in Los Angeles and we have seen how training has changed in an incredible way at a national level. We’re using a lot of new stuff right now.”

Baseball has changed a lot.

“Without a doubt, but since I work with so many stars I always have the latest information. Every time a JD Martínez, a Giancarlo Stanton or a Miguel Cabrera have the latest that comes out, it is because the big companies approach them and show them the best there is. We use all these benefits to improve our training”.

Why do those stars trust you?

“We focus on doing a good job, in a professional manner and we know what we are doing. That is the most important. To have achieved this for us is a dream. We still have a long way to go, but it’s definitely a dream come true.”

What do you feel when you see your installation full of stars?

“It gives me joy. It satisfies me and I feel proud for my family, for everything we have achieved. I have stayed in Hialeah because it is part of who I am. I live in Hialeah. I could have had this anywhere else. I have created a family here and I am in the center of the whole world.”

And your kids are good at ball?

“They like it and you have to support them. No one knows what each one will give. I have had athletes that no one imagined would be good and today they are. That this is going to be a baseball player and the other is not, nobody knows that.”

This story was originally published on February 23, 2022 8:01 a.m.