Cuban baseball players Yunesky Maya and Cionel Pérez ratified this week their refusal to be part of the Cuban team in the World Baseball Classic. Instead, Lorenzo Quintana confirmed his participation, according to journalist Francys Romero. With his intervention, “at least they ensure a power bat and timely hitting with experience at a high professional level,” he said.
Pérez chose “not to participate” for a government that called him a “traitor, sells out the country, a worm,” said the pitcher. “Why do I have to play for a government that censors all MLB (Major League) games? Why can’t my family in Cuba see me play in the regular season, but now how convenient it is for one to represent that dictatorship? forgot everything they said.”
The left-hander left the Island in May 2015 after being suspended on the grounds of “indiscipline.” In his last tournament defending Matanzas he got 75 strikeouts and had a 2.06 ERA in 87 games with a 1/3 average innings, public Radio and Television Martí.
“I have more moral courage than all the leaders of the party,” stressed the athlete and denied the idea that Cuban baseball has nothing to do with politics. “That’s a lie”. He exposed through his social networks that the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER), “we all know it well, it is another ram of the leaders and I am not going to represent it.”
Why do I have to play for a government that censors all MLB (Major League) games, said Cionel Pérez
Cionel Pérez clarified that like all Cubans, “he feels and suffers” for everything that is happening on the island. “I have a family, I have grandparents, I have uncles and I have cousins who still live in that jail.” He accepted that saying “no” to represent “my country hurts my soul, but I have my moral values very clear.”
The Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB) also sought the pitcher Yunesky Maya, who told to the magazine Cuban ball that he let them know that he “did not agree to participate” for Cuba.
To the acceptance of the baseball players Yoenis Céspedes, Onelkis García, Yoan Moncada, Andy Ibáñez, Yoan López and Elian Leyva, he said he respected their opinion. “The one who took the step like Roenis, like Céspedes, the other guys, I know that many have come out saying things but, we are human.”
The man from Pinar del Río stressed that he would “watch from home” the World Classic. “I don’t wish them harm, I’m going to support my teammates from wherever I am.” The baseball player was part of the Cuban team that won the runner-up in 2006.
Different is the position of Lorenzo Quintana, who is on the 50-player roster, from which the Cuban team that will participate in the V World Baseball Classic will come out. “He’s coming off hitting 14 home runs with the Triple-A branch of the Marlins”, said Francys Romero. And he is currently in the Dominican Winter League with the Tigres del Licey.
Last November, Andy Ibanez and Yoan Lopez They were expelled from the Association of Professionals for agreeing to play with Cuba, which was described as an act of “double standards”, since months before they had expressed their support for the association, created in March to form a team of players from the Major Leagues. Leagues that could participate in the World Classic. The initiative was promoted by former players René Arocha, Orlando El Duke Hernández, Ariel Prieto and Edilberto Oropeza.
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