The days go by … but the bitter memory left by Villa Clara’s performance in the recent Caribbean Series still painfully persists in the minds of many baseball lovers. Undoubtedly, it was a tournament that served to show how distant Cuba is from the real world, the real baseball.
However, among so many bruises and wailing, a man came to stand up for Cuba. A man who barely entered into the plans of the most knowledgeable experts, but he attended the event and when he had the opportunity, he shut up many mouths. C amagüey’s Vicyohandri Odelín, who now plays for Industriales, was the rabbit that Ramón Moré pulled out from his hat and he was the surprise of the tournament with an epic win over the Mayagüez Indios.
Without showing the introverted and inaccessible character he usually has on the box, “Viyo” answered this time all questions without hesitation, leaving an air of satisfaction after each answer, as someone who has nothing to prove to anyone .
In a previous interview you told me that the game of your life had been that one against Puerto Rico at the 1st WBC, does it still remains as your most memorable win after the Caribbean Series?
I think the game of the Classic remains as my best performance because it meant a lot. Now many people tell me that the one of the Caribbean Series was even better , but I don’t think so. This was my first complete game with Cuba team, but the most important was that of the WBC, and it was not as a starter. However, the one of the Caribbean Series was a good game, because there was quality, it was like a Caribbean Major League, they proved it to us.
You were perhaps the most questioned reinforcement and, ultimately, the only one who practically highlighted for Cuba…
That is why this win also has a very big meaning. Many sport journalists and narrators, without knowing what I’ve done in baseball, because sometimes I wonder to what extent they know my stats, have maliciously questioned me. All I’ve done is working when I have been given the opportunity . And I showed that my election was not in vain, so I asked Moré the ball, because I had been previously used as reliever in a game we were losing and I told myself ‘I did not come here for this,’ and I did it, and not only for me, because I know what I’ve done, what I can and can’t do, but I put it more interest because of all the people who questioned me.
I read in Moré´s statements that the night before the game against the Mayagüez Indios you told him you were the man for that game…
I went to see Moré and told him: ¨Give the ball, I’m going to be the starting pitcher, because you fought for me and defended me, then no matter if I win or loose, we take off that mask. If I do it well, you you can defend your choice and if not, then nothing happens because we all were given an opportunity here. Then give me the chance of make you feel proud, I’m going to work for you. Then he told me the game was mine.
The match begins and you allow a homer and a double. Many people thought it was another defeat for Cuba. How did you overcome that moment?
The homerun was a long hit. It was only the first inning and felt myself quiet. I did not allow any more hits.
Your biggest complication was in the sixth inning when you granted three walks…
The umpires there are plenty of quality, they are professionals. One of the walks was almost intentional to the third bat, who was who hit the homer previously. I told myself: ¨You already hit me and you are not going to do it twice. ¨So I was not throwing wild pitches, but I was working very carefully because it was a tight game and anyone of them could hit a homer and hence screw up my performance. They had a lot of quality and power.
You mentioned the referees; did you notice the strike zone was quite different to that applied in Cuban National Series?
I really felt it was a bit narrower, but I have control and then try to throw pitches for batters to make swing, not for the umpire to decide. I pitch for them to bat, not to strike out anyone.
It is been no longer you could not complete a nine-innings game and I do not know if you had ever thrown 132 pitches. In the same interview Moré said he talked to you to replace you but you replied him: ‘The roosters die here’…
Moré went to see me in the seventh inning and told me he was going to bring Norge Luis Ruiz, who was already warming up, to relieve me and I flatly said no, that if I took the lost it would be by myself and added that he could take me out when I was losing.
Speaking of decisions, in Cuba there was much controversy about the inclusion of Victor Mesa as technical chief of the team. Who ruled in the dugout? Who had the last word when decisions had to be taken?
It was always Moré. Victor Mesa was a help and support because he knows a lot about baseball and then Moré invited him, but all decisions were made by Moré and the technical staff.
How were the reactions after the game? I imagine many people were amazed and all the press wanted to interview you.
Sometimes I feel bad with the Cuban press, because I do not know happens that they not always highlight what it really is. When the game finished all foreign televisions were there to interview me and also the Cuban press. Then I paused and thought: Let’s give them (the foreign media) the opportunity and then I see you ‘.
Despite the euphoria by that success we can not cover the sun with one finger; the team showed many shortcomings which left evidence of the alarming low level of Cuban baseball. What do you think about it?
It was a top level championship. We are not worse than them, but we are least prepared. They are professional players; they are psychologically, physically and financially better than us.
In the pitching area, for example, is where most gaps can be found in Cuban baseball. Pitchers specialization is barely used in the National Series, while in the rest of the world is almost an unwritten rule…
The National Series is a baseball that is played to win, for the province; that is why specialization is not well done, because when you need to win a game a coach may use even an outfielder as pitcher. So I tell you that they are more prepared than us because they have a pitcher for each function and get paid for it. That’s their job.
What was what impressed you the most in the Caribbean Series?
There were many quality players, but Puerto Rican catcher Martin Maldonado was one of the best I saw. And sometimes I was impressed by the rivals´ physical because I’m not a very tall pitcher. That’s why they throw hard and hit homers, because they are strong, tall, and that influences, helps.
The international press reported that you had to face a group of people who tried to attack you by your condition as Cuban representatives. How was that moment?
It was ugly, because we are not used to see that, but that’s socialism-capitalism, that’s Venezuela. And you might get impressed because that does not happen here in Cuba. We came from training, but we had no good security, so we had to enter through the back of the hotel. I did not like that, but it’s the way of thinking of each other, I do not know much of politics, I just know that I live in Cuba and I feel good here, with or without, but I feel good. I even told the driver to open the door to face them, but … I do not know why they do those things if we have nothing to do with politics, we just went there to see if we could win a baseball game.
You are now 33, an age in which many people consider you a veteran but in the rest of the world you would be in full sporting maturity. Do you feel that your career is already in the final stretch?
Life gave me the opportunity to start pitching young. Previously I won through sheer force because I was young, but now I do it based on the gained experience, and I do it easier. And they’re telling me veteran since I was 30, but there are other synonyms for that word, they might tell me experienced, for example. Age is severely judged here in Cuba. If those who are 20 years can not take outs, then you should not tell me veteran because you’re calling me old-fashioned. I’ve felt bad myself a hundred times for that. When I feel myself really veteran, then I’m going to retire and I will not play more baseball. But for now I’m fine, I’m great.
Now you are reinforcing the capital. It’s weird because you have spent many years wearing only Camagüey’s jersey, and suddenly you are playing for Industriales and Villa Clara…
God willing I will be successful with Industriales, because that is a team that knows how to play baseball. They might lose, but they do it playing well. There everyone does his job and I know I’ll have results. And now that Urgellés joined us it is going to be better . The other day he appeared in the training session hitting strongly and I asked him, ‘Hey you’re training at night’, because he was in very good shape.
And what about that famous breaking ball of yours? I think it was Pestano who named it ¨garabato¨…
That’s my prime pitch, which identifies me. I’ve tried to show it to many pitchers. Currently, in Industriales, some boys see me and I try to explain it to them, but then they say it is very difficult, and it is not, if I learned it, others can also do it.
But did someone teach you how to throw it?
I learned it when I was 14. I liked baseball since childhood and I’ve always played it. I once saw a magazine that had a picture of Greg Maddux, a pitcher of the Atlanta Braves who was an animal. There were two or three photos in sequence and there I saw the grip of the ball he made. So, while playing with a ball made of socks, because now there’s tape but at that time was not, I tried to do the same grip, and tried again and again until I got it. It does not consist in bending the arm, but in using the wrist.
Through the new measures adopted by the government now Cuban players can play in other leagues, except for the MLB, without the need to leave the country. Do you have any plans at the end of the championship? Did any scout now see you in the Caribbean Series and I propose you something?
It’s amazing this still happens to me at this point in my career; because since I was young whenever I played out the scouts always proposed me things but that never interested me. And now, when I´m called a veteran in Cuba, the scouts, who already know me, tell me ‘ you still have three or four years to give, come with us ‘ , but I always tell them no. If I did not do it when I was 20, I will not do it now. However, that makes me great, because it means I’m not dead and people know me.
But now with no need to leave the country you can play in other leagues, for example in Asia, where their schedule do not coincide with that of the National Series. Would not you be interested?
That is not so easy. Here we have INDER (Spanish acronym for National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation), the government, which are the ones who decide that. I’m ready to pitch, and it would please me a lot, but I must fulfill my working conditions, but if they give me a chance I’m ready to do whatever it takes.
Everyone knows of Odelín´s international successes: Olympic and world champion, runner up at 1st WBC. But very few know that in the previous season you lived one of the most difficult times in your career when an injury leaves you off the team to the 3rd WBC, then you were not chosen as reinforcement for the second stage of the National Series and, even worse, Camagüey’s baseball provincial commission publicly sanctioned you for alleged indiscipline. All that must have made you rethink many things in your life for this year to drastically change your career, with seven wins and two losses in the National Series and this superb victory in the Caribbean Series…
I have a theory: I do not like looking bad. Sometimes when playing in the stadium of Camagüey, people yell at me, sometimes with reason, because if you do it wrong there is nothing to congratulate you. But sometimes they say stupid things, without knowing statistics, because they do not know about baseball, do not know what I’m going through, do not know my personal problems, but in the end I’m happy, because that strengthens me and then I go on against that. The critics stimulate me and make me to strive a little more about looking good. And I do it for them, but honestly I tell you that I work for my family and the people who love me and follow me. I work for people who know about baseball, because many people give their opinion even without knowing about it. As Jorge Junior, the singer of the reggaeton band ¨Los 4, ¨says: ‘Stay out if you do not know’.
