One of the first great legends of Industrials and the National Series died

By Yasel Porto

There are fewer and fewer of those legendary players who starred in that romantic stage of the sixties in Cuban baseball, which was also the start of our National Series. One of the survivors of that baseball so special to so many people passed away very recently after having battled for many years against various health conditions.

Sad news, Urbano González, Cuban baseball idol, passed away.

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– Complete Swing LLC (@SwingCompletoBB) December 4, 2021

Mentioning the name of Urbano González Basanta, «El Guajiro de Catalina de Güines», was to say one of the indisputable icons of those Industrial They won for four consecutive years under the direction of Ramón Carneado, but also with enough quality to transcend beyond his beloved team and become one of the most important players of that time.

Urbano was part of almost all the momentous moments of that decade of the sixties where he was characterized, among other things, by a fantastic touch that made him the hitter with the best strikeout frequency in the history of Cuban baseball regardless of time.

Although he played for a time as third base to the stellar left-handed hitter, he was recognized above all as one of the most notable second basemen who has played in the National Series, perhaps surpassed only by the Matanzas Félix Isasi among those who participated in those initial years of the amateur classics of the island.

Together with Pedro Chávez and Jorge Trigoura he formed the most respected offensive trio of his generation, and joined other top-level players such as Antonio González, Germán Águila, Santiago Scott, Ñico Jiménez and Eulogio Osorio, plus pitchers of the stature of Alfredo Street, Manuel Hurtado, Santiago “Changa” Mederos, Raúl “Guagua” López and Antonio Rubio, among many others, made the Blues invincible until the enchantment was broken from the 1966-67 season.

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Internationally, he never missed the call for the Cuba team since the Chicago Pan American Games in 1959 and until the end of the seventies. And not only was he always there but he started most of the time with a performance that placed him among the offensive leaders of the Cuban squad.

He participated in the World Cups in 1961, 1970, 1971 and 1972, in addition to the continental events of 1970. He was also present in the Central American Games of 1962, 1966 and 1970. He was batting champion inside the Island in 1964-65 and three times led the undisputed. In 13 seasons he finished with a meritorious 287 average taking into account the quality of the ball and the wooden bat, as well as the higher concentration of pitching than what came later. The mythical number 19 who had been champion with Westerners in the I National Series of 1962 said goodbye to the active game officially in 1974.

After his retirement in the mid-1970s, Urban He had a notable role as a coach in the old Havana province, in what today belongs to the Mayabeque territory. Above all, he had a great contribution to the development of baseball in Güines and in his native town of Catalina, where he is the greatest social idol along with Antonio “Ñico” Jiménez.

In addition to having earned the respect of the people for his sports results, he was also a highly loved people for his human conditions. His character won him the affection of everyone who interacted with him on and off the pitch.

In the last five years, Urbano’s health has weakened considerably. His mobility had been severely hampered and many of his abilities were also limited by various health conditions that had completely cut him off from a normal life for a person his age. He was 82 years old when he died, which he had turned last May 25.