Lázaro Vargas´ Industriales wants to be swallowed by earth, being wrapped in the leaden silence that last night left and disappear in the breeze of Cerro municipality. The derailment was such that they ended up lying in the gutter with the mouth open. The Latinoamericano Stadium went from fuss to helplessness, from feast to funeral, from getting hoarse in the stands to look down and embed sight on a tile to avoid the tragic end.
Too much punishment. Five games in a row were thrown down the drain. And the issue is not the slump, but the fact of being beaten at home, at their headquarters, matter of pride that their fans do not forgive. Head coach Vargas is already sought to climb him to the blue guillotine.
The Isla de la Juventud Pirates took Havana and with the territory in their possession surrounded the mound of the legendary Latinoamericano ballpark and cheered and jumped and turned towards their fans that crossed by catamaran the Caribbean Sea and thanked their support at all times.
Meanwhile, in the opposite dugout, Vargas remained in his little chair looking absorbed their celebration. His face was the same as always, that rueful face (we already do not know if it’s a pose) although this time is justified by the elimination. He must have fallen into one of those emotional impasses where the temple is dissolved and you’ll fall in a vacuum, where you find yourself alone, accompanied by slips, setbacks and finish shaking your head to bury grief.
At that moment, maybe he was have repented to avoid at all costs the bunt and always play at homer, maybe he realized of his stubbornness in choosing the reinforcements, despite their stats anticipate him that those names had achieved bad numbers and that he needed pitchers in detriment of position players, or on certain days having forced the inclusion of his child (a 15 years old boy) in a roster of men.
A lineup can not be changed as you change your underwear, in a baseball team the starters and alternates should be well defined (in this team, with the exception of Malleta, Rudy and Yulieski, the other players were changeable), a baseball game is very young still in the fifth inning to throw it overboard and start giving chance to those who never play at that time of the match.
There have been three years of clear, explicit arguments, which are still to be settled, a complete cycle and the blue machinery still does not run. Neither with the injection of the Gourriels, nor with Entenza, or Alexander Rodriguez they have managed to return to the stellar levels. “They will die diagnosed”, people say.
This version of Industriales lives from the rival, its inaccuracies, stealing the minutiae left on the road. The image is Carlos Tabares, who had to come off the bench and stretch his muscles and run like in his younger days after hitting a harmless grounder to shortstop to slide on first base and bring the supposed winning run that a few minutes later remain in forgetfulness.
Industriales is this dusty Tabares, a mechanical team playing by instinct because it has no drive shaft.
Those who doubt it, I invite you to come back to that last innings. La Isla won by one run and the speedy Hector Mendoza was brought in from the bullpen to ensure the win. Malleta received him with hit to the right field. Vargas never intended to advance the runner when he was at only three outs to complete the story; neither Rudy was ordered to sacrifice, nor Malleta was replaced by a runner at first base. Rudy failed, like Torriente who batted after him.
The responsibility was on the wrists of Yulieski as pinch hitter. A day earlier in a similar situation he had hit for double play. That perennial flashback that reminds Gourriel his album of postcards at opportune moments where blood was frozen had returned, his face gets twisted and the swing becomes rigid. New page, new card: fly to third, at the hands of Michel Enriquez. Ironies of baseball.
