“I prefer to carry boxes in the USA than to be Cuba’s first pitcher”, CONFESSED an outstanding Cuban pitcher

By Miguel Guerra

On the night of April 1, 2021, “The Complete Swing Show”, a stellar space on our YouTube channel, was attended by the experienced pitcher Jorge Alberto Martínezwho, after playing for eight seasons in the Cuban Baseball National Series, decided to leave the island in search of a better future as an athlete and human being.

Since then and for almost a decade, the right-hander born in Havana but who always represented Matanzas in Cuban baseball, has participated in the main professional circuits in the area, both winter and summer, including the leagues of Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, with excellent results.

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the night that Martinez was invited to the program, was also present William Herediahis teammate with the yumurino team in the National Series and current champion of the 2021 World Series with the Atlanta Braves, who asked the veteran pitcher a direct question about his departure from Cuba and the opinion he issued, in all mockery, a popular Cuban coach, whose name the athletes did not want to reveal.

«Yes, I remember… he said that I left Cuba to load boxes in the United States. That was a comment he made at a meeting. He said that I had the conditions to go to the III World Classic in 2013. But, why would I go to the Classic if they were not going to let me out later?”, explained the Cuban pitcher, still active and with first-class results level.

«In fact, I was sitting at home one day, watching the newspaper and they gave a pre-selection cut to the Clásico. They left it at 70 or 50 players, something like that… When I looked, my name was there! And I said to myself: “But what is my name doing there if I’m not training or anything?” I thought I was going to embark, “added the athlete, who had already decided to leave the Island, by legal means.

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As is known, Martinez he left Cuba in 2013, the year in which the III World Baseball Classic was played, an event for which he had some chances to join the Cuba team, considering that Víctor Mesa, then director of Matanzas, was the manager of the national team and Jorge was one of his trusted pitchers.

However, the veteran Cuban pitcher was very clear about his criteria on the subject: if it was better for him to make the Cuba to the Clásico or leave the country…

“I prefer to be a box loader in the United States than the first pitcher of the Cuba team,” said the player. «That is not an undignified job, tomorrow the ball will end and you do not know where you are going to take it. I don’t have any problem, if I have to clean pits I clean them, what I can’t do is steal », he added, with a solid and convincing position.

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There are not a few Cuban baseball players who have a similar opinion. Due to the terrible attention given to athletes on the Island and other issues specific to the country, which everyone knows and recognizes, in addition to the countless opportunities for development that exist in the world, many athletes, professionals, workers and people in general, prefer escape from the island to foreign countries, even preferring to “carry boxes” than to remain inside Cuba.