The Island lost one of the founders of the National Baseball Series and a figure in the ninth of Industriales. This Saturday the player Urbano González died in Havana, at the age of 82. “One of the greats of Cuban baseball” left, wrote in a post COCO sportscaster Andy Vargas.
Known as the Guajiro de Catalina de Güines, the athlete possessed a privileged left-foot command, being right by nature. “Since he was little, just 12 years old,” his father Regino González “threw 80 balls every day to hit him in the center,” he reported. Cubadebate.
His attributes on the diamond led him to debut at age 17 with Catalina’s team in the National Amateur League, attached to the Athletic Union of Amateurs of Cuba. The young man from the Catalina de Güines municipality stood out for “his prodigious eyesight and versatility to play in any position in the box,” the official media reported.
He also called the King of Touch participated in the Pedro Betancourt League, in Matanzas and the Quivicán League. In addition, in 1962, it was fundamental for the conformation of the first National Series on the Island. It defended the colors of the novenas of Occidental, Industriales, Habana and Constructores.
“Since he was little, just 12 years old,” his father Regino González “threw 80 balls every day for him to hit him in the center”
Throughout 13 seasons, González achieved outstanding statistics. He is the Cuban player who accumulates the most consecutive times at bat without striking out (190) and has the most appearances to the batter’s box (217) without fan the breeze. It cannot be omitted that he played 50 games without reaching the third strike and in 2,864 times at bat he only had a negative count 67 times, for an average of one strikeout per 47.3 appearance at the home plate.
In 2015, Hirain Álvarez, a reader, made it known to 14ymedio in one of your comments that “the most tactful man in Cuban baseball of all time survived, I can assure you that way, in addition to his retirement and 150 CUC per month, thanks to his farm in Aguirre.” He specified that this man who was able to “sleep among millions” outside of Cuba, did not do so “because he did not leave his family and his Aguirre Natal.”
In the history of Urbano González, there are four world titles (1961, 1970, 1971 and 1972), two golds (1963 and 1971) and one silver (1967) in the Pan American Games; and also a trio of gold in the 1966, 1970 and 1974 Central American and Caribbean Sports Games, just to mention the most significant.
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