Rey Ordonez resembles a kind tourist kind this Friday morning. He arrived in Havana about an hour ago, maybe two, after much time away. He’s trying to put everything in its right place. With a shot of rum in his hand, or whiskey, Ordonez walks to a window of the Cohiba Hotel and stares at the Vedado buildings, the minimum composition of the city. Havana from above looks like a model: buildings and dilapidated roofs, the thousands of windows, their incessant noise, which is, indeed, the combination of many noises, and the wide strip of sea. Ordoñez delays his study a few seconds. He wants to accommodate this Havana, what reality brings back to him, to that Havana that for more than two decades he has been amassing in his head.
He wears a white sweater, with glasses hung around his neck, black short, and shoes, also black. He wears on his arm right a watch and a tattoo and nothing on his left arm. Or maybe he does. He wears the scar of an old surgery, which Ordonez calls, “the killer scar”.
A scar like this is something that a man should be recognized by. But Havana people do not recognize Rey Ordonez. Neither his face nor bearing. Despite his career with the New York Mets, despite three consecutive Gold Gloves between 1997 and 1999, despite his hands and strong arm, despite his stunts in the short stop, what is best known in is the name Ordonez.
For the vast majority of Cubans, he is just the guy who left with little more than twenty years of age, the future competition for German Mesa, and that they say (Ordonez seems a kind of myth, as if he doesn’t exist), had a great impact with his defensive skills in the Majors. That is, he caught right and left, and if he had stayed in Industriales, only God knows what would have happened.
With forty-one, his physique denotes the living image of a retired Big Leaguer, a successful man who succeeded where he wanted to.
Ordonez could well, because of looks, conduct a TV program, but there is a problem, he doesn’t talk much. Although perhaps he could, we could not judge him at the first hurdle.
Outside you can see the sky, the tops of some buildings. Stuff which is the same anywhere in the world, but Ordonez knows he is in Havana. Change here overwhelms him. Sometimes people need to listen to their inner voice. Watching the city. And measure the face the city returns.
– Impressed?
-Yesterday I got up at two in the morning, because I was coming, I couldn’t sleep.
– do you any family here?
-Yes, my brothers, my father, but I do not know many people here anymore.
Friends and others, I mean.
– Will you be here long?
-No, but I will come back in June. I have had my heart in my hand for some days.
– Shall we start?
-Anytime.
– How did you start in baseball?
-I was 8 years old when I started in Marcelo Sosa, a Pre-EIDE.
-And your career, how did go? How did you get, for example, to the Mets?
‘Well, as you get there. I started in the 10-12 years category, after that I went to the EIDE boarding school at sixteen. I made the children Cuba team and then the youth team and then went to Metropolitanos, in 89 ‘. I played two years with them and two with Industriales.
– Did you like that Metropolitanos?
-Details like that do not come to my mind, but I do remember that there were good players: Enriquito Diaz, Antonio Scull, Rafael Gomez Mena.
-You were in the regular Metropolitanos roster and then when you arrived in Industrial you were sent to the bench. How did you take that?
-Well, I planned to play regularly, but Germán Mesa was in Industriales.
Although the Mets actually has always been a transition team to Industriales. It’s like the branch for Industriales.
– Did you accept the change?
I didn’t accept it, the first year I got really angry, as we say.
Since then I had to accept it because I had to play.
-You make the team to the Universiity Games 93 ‘, in Buffalo, and decided to stay. What prompted you to leave the country at a time that that was not so usual? Arocha was the only want who had left at that time.
-Search. At that time I was 20, and wanted to find something else, test how far was my quality or whether it was possible for me to succeed in the Majors.
-You didn’t have your debut in the Major till 96 ‘. Did you ever think that there you could get there?
-It is quite difficult because the ball is very different in the United States compared to Cuba. The discipline, how to play the game.
There, first they send you to a minor league, to go training, to go picking, learning. It is like a school, first grade, second, third, until you make it. Some do and some do not. It is a process.
-There is a story from the day you made your debut. You were playing against the Cardinals, a throw came from the outfield, you caught it and with your knee on the ground you turned and made the out in home. It is said that Ozzie Smith, when he saw you, said he could retire because his relief had come to the majors. How do you remember such a debut?
I still, even now, get goose bumps. It was an honor and a boost from the best shortstop in the majors has told me that in my first year.
– What place would you give Ordonez among Cuban shortstops?
That’s a tough question that I cannot answer. I leave it to fans.
-There is a myth about a statement by you. It is said that you were asked if you were the best shortstop in the world and you answered that the best shortstop was in Cuba, that it was Germán Mesa. Was it like that?
-Something like that. Let’s see, let me see how I put it. I was already in the majors, and I would not say was better than German, or better than Paret. Everyone knew, experts knew that in Cuba there was a short stop like Germán Mesa, who was very good.
– How was the exact statement, do you remember it?
-I think I was asked something like: “Hey, they say that in Cuba there is a shortstop better than you, is it true? “. And I said yes, there was one better than me, and I said no, they could not believe it, it was impossible.
-Three consecutive Gold Gloves, what was the trick?
-It’s a skill I have. I think I could have done much more, but it’s what I said, discipline, training, not missing a game.
– Did the injury influence that you couldn’t do anymore?
No, there were other things. For example, when I left Cuba we didn’t lift weights. In baseball you need to stay strong, because of the many games. Here, when I played, there were about a hundred games, and there two hundred are played between training and regular season.
Your reach brought a lot of talk. Where is harder for you to move to, where Ordonez fielded better?
Well, here in Cuba he gap was more difficult, until a day I tried on my knees and made it easier to move, then eliminated what worried me most. I played closer to third.
-Someone helped you correct the mistake, was it a scout or something?
-No, it was here, in a practice at the Mazorra field in Psychiatric Hospital. It was instinct. I fell and tried. It is even faster while you rush to your knees, because you get to the position to throw the ball. If not, you have to catch the ball, take two steps, stop, and then throw to first.
– is there anyone how was decisive in your career?
-Not decisive, but Antonio Alama was very important.
– And in the majors?
In Major League Baseball is more difficult there you are on your own. You are s professional. If you ask for help, they will give it to you. If you don’t ask, they will not come to where you are. It’s different.
-Regarding batting. You were a great contact hitter. You struck out very little, however you dint have impressive offensive numbers. Which do you think was the cause for that?
-The same I said before. Maybe I was not dedicated enough.
– Did you spend more time working on your defense?
-No, I think defense was always there.
– Is it natural?
‘Yes, of course. And the other thing: not to justify myself but I was batting in very difficult spot in the National League. I was batting eighth and the pitcher was behind. Imagine this: man on second, two outs, you have a hitter behind that is almost ninety percent of the time out, you will get an uncomfortable pitch to see if you swing at bad balls, for see if they leave the pitcher to open the next inning. If you are looking statistics of the National League, you will see that those who bat eighth not have much average.
-There is much talk about the Mets infield in the late nineties, with Robin Ventura at third, shortstop Ordonez, Edgardo Alfonzo in second and John Olerud at first. It is even said that ranks among the best ever. Do you agree?
-I think it’s the best. I’m talking about what I experienced and the numbers are there.
-If you had to assemble a whole team, would you risk one?
– But to play or manage?
-As you wish.
-It’s hard.
-Risks one, we have time.
-Oh, it’s hard.
– Catcher Piazza?
No, no Piazza. The problem is that there are many good players I played with and I did with good chemistry, but I can tell the second baseman who I would have liked to play longer.
-Who.
-With Padilla. Alfonzo was also very good, because we played together from Double A and we got along well, but I would have played more with Padilla.
-Your stunts brought ovations from the crowds. Were all necessary, or there were some on purpose?
-I think that that just happens. I think you cannot be on the field thinking of jumping, and I think there plays that you have to secure the ball. It’s not necessarily that you have to dive, but if you do not dive the ball can hit the tip of the glove or pass you by. There is difference between securing a ball and dive for a ground ball.
-Subway 2000. A thrilling end, after forty-four years waiting, the two teams from New York. However, you suffered an injury in May and you missed the entire season, including the World Series.
Some kind of frustration?
-Yes, it’s hard. There are many players in the Hall of Fame who have not reached a World Series. But then I’m hurt. The injury was not bad enough to lose the entire year. I was unlucky. The bone was welded wrong and they had to operate again. It was frustrating, the team was in a good year and I missed it.
-The injury was how, in what game.
-It was in Los Angeles, in a steal. The pitcher turned to first, the man left, the throw was high, to my left, I jumped, and when I turned the runner hit me with his helmet. Look there (pointing at left forearm), the killer scar.
-Before leaving the Mets you declare that the fans of New York were stupid. What happened?
-No, it was a misinterpretation of the journalist. The team supposed to win, because we had, let’s say, a good roster. Let me try to explain. That year we had the usual numbers, but playing in New York is not like playing in Florida or Pittsburgh, that have just two journalists. In New York there are journalists all day since you get to the field until you leave at one, two in the morning. Then I tell the reporter, “but are New York fans stupid? They do not want to win more than us, ” then the journalist puts it: “Rey Ordonez says New York fans are stupid. ” They ate me alive, I was traded within two months.
But that was not the expression of mine that was the team for me I played for nine years.
– You wanted to go to the Mets when they traded you?
-No, of course not.
– And that statement is what had you out?
-That comment. After that the journalist apologized to me, but I said, “You’re late.” New York fans are unforgiving.
Then, in Tampa and Cubs I had much lower numbers.
-I was actually a little disappointed. In Tampa I also hurt me knee, in another move. I was more concerned about the extent of my contract; it was the last year of my contract. Everything goes down the drain; I had a surgery in April. And I was playing in the American, which is another different league. It was not the same layout, the same mood.
– Any difference between leagues apart from that pitchers bat in the National?
In the National they play more hit and run. The American League is about power.
-In one of your prodigal years you made only four errors in 154 games. You even manage to record one hundred and one games without an error. Is it still a record?
-No, somebody broke it. It’s record in the National League, but not in the MLB.
– Who broke it?
-Mike Bordick, from the Orioles.
-But Bordick also played in the Mets.
‘It was my change in the Mets in 2000 when I was injured.
– was Bordick a good shortstop?
-Yes, everyone that is in the big leagues is a good athlete.
‘But at that level, I say.
-I was not worried about Bordick. I worried more about Vizquel, for example.
– What about the press, did they follow the streak?
-They must have followed it, but I felt a little annoyed. When I broke Carl Ripkens mark, ninety-six or ninety-eight games, it goes unnoticed. They didn’t do homage or anything. When Bordick breaks mine, automatically they take the spikes and glove and take them to the Hall of Fame.
– Do you think it is because Bordick was American there has been some kind of privilege?
-Surely, because it should have been even, the same for both.
– Did you, personally, feel some pressure as games passed and you weren’t making an error?
-No, I did not think about that because it was myjob. When I thought about it, I made the error.
– Where was it?
We finished the 99 ‘season and open the 2000 season in Japan against the Chicago Cubs. We are in the infield, in practice, and I tell Venezuelan Melvin Mora: “Hey, buddy, one hundred and one games without error “, and Mora tells me to shut up, not to speak of the subject.
– On what did you make the error?
On a slow ground ball over second. In the Tokyo Dome the bturf is artificial, the ball hit the inner edge between the land and synthetic, bounced higher, and there it was.
-Let’s go to Cuba. Have you followed the WBC?
Yes, of course, always. And also the National Series.
– How about Cuban baseball today?
-There quality, but we must improve a lot tactically. Other things also. The catchers protest too much, for example.
-If you were to compare today’s ball with the ball you played early nineties, you’d say.
-I think in my time was a little more quality, in general, in all teams.
But is due to talent or other factors? I do not know, to me it seems we have the same talent, potentially Yulieski Gourriel could be as good as any, but there are background problems, the basic structure in the current Cuban baseball.
I do not think so. I think that before there was more quality before.
– And this team to the Classic what did it seem to you?
-A good team, they could have fought a little longer.
– Did you like Victor Mesa as a director?
He puts some pressure on the players, for my taste.
-Arruebarruena, how do you see him?
-Very good. Play loose, elegant, makes it easy.
– Better than Ordonez?
-No, not as I good as me (he laughs and jokes). Now, seriously, good hands, good arm. I like Arruebarruena much.
People say he even that could overtake Germán Mesa.
‘Could be, he has talent.
And Paret, did you likehim?
-We came together from the youth teams. Paret improved much over the years, and showed it.
If I say Industriales to you, what would you answer me.
-That’s the best team.
And between Industrial and Mets, with whom you stay.
-I believe that with the two.
And when I say Cuba.
Well, Cuba is my life, my country. In the Classic I we pressed the United States to represent and play for the team, that’s a dream, but we could not.
-Back to Cuba twenty years later. Can you define it?
I do not know, it’s back to your turf, where you were born, your land, imagine that. I’m impressed. I have yet this slump in the stomach.
I do not believe it, and it does not seem true.
Author
Carlos M. Álvarez
