Cuban Norge Luis Vera, considered one of the best National Series pitchers of all time, arrived in the United States this Friday. The gold medalist in the Athens 2004 Olympic Games was reunited with his son Norge Carlos, currently with possibilities in the Chicago White Sox, revealed on his social media the journalist Francys Romero.
The communicator referred to Vera as “the ace that Santiago de Cuba needed in the times of Antonio Pacheco, Orestes Kindelán and Gabriel Pierre” for his performance in international events “qualifying among the best in history in victories and effectiveness.”
With the abandonment of Vera, the Island loses an experienced athlete who also won the silver medal in the Sydney 2000 and Beijing 2008 Olympics, in addition to winning the national championship six times with Santiago de Cuba and being the only pitcher with more than 30 postseason wins. Most importantly, he loses an athlete who was meant to pass on his knowledge to new generations.
Vera leaves a void that is difficult to fill in Cuban baseball, which continues to accumulate with the escape of pitchers so many strikeouts that the outlook looks set for a resounding defeat. The native of Siboney was ahead of Yoen Socarrás, the 35-year-old from Sancti Spiritus, who was part of the first Elite League.
The gold medalist at the 2004 Athens Olympics, Norge Luis Vera was reunited with his son Norge Carlos
Francys Romero told a FR Baseball! that just before leaving Socarrás Island he had “requested his withdrawal from the sports system”, so he did not rule out that “he will try to settle in the United States and then continue his career in independent circuits or in Mexico. If he is in good shape, work will not allow him will be missing”.
Sonora was also the departure of the former pitcher and pitching coach of Granma Ciro Silvino Licea. In mid-September, the baseball player took a flight at the José Martí International Airport in Havana bound for Nicaragua, from where he undertook the journey to the United States.
His departure took the Farmers team by surprise, because he was considered to be part of the coaching staff that would intervene in the first Elite League. Licea is a benchmark among pitchers in the 23 National Series with 208 wins with 3,067.1 innings of work, where he added 1,887 strikeouts, with a 3.69 earned run average, in addition to having “a slider difficult to hit and a fastball of more than 90 miles with a repertoire that has improved over the years”, as posted on Facebook Sports by Modesto Aguero.
Days before, Yanier Fernández Piedra, who was Mayabeque’s pitching coach, arrived in the US. “It was a difficult decision to leave Cuba, my family stayed behind, the economic situation was very hard,” he told Cuban newspaper.
Fernández has completed studies in Physical Culture and Sports from the Fructuoso Rodríguez Pérez Agrarian University of Havana, so his foray as a youth team coach may be an option.
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