La Vida Voices: Oakland A’s broadcaster Amaury Pi-González

Latino baseball fans in the San Francisco Bay Area have become well acquainted with the voice of broadcaster Amaury Pi-González. The Cuba native has spent most of the past four decades working in the Bay Area as a Spanish-language play-by-play announcer for the San Francisco Giants and, currently, for the Oakland Athletics. The veteran announcer got his start when A’s owner Charlie Finley gave him permission to begin broadcasting Oakland games in Spanish in the late 1970s.

Baseball has been Pi-González’s favorite sport since his childhood in Cuba. A love of baseball was passed down from his father who took a young Amaury to see the Cuban league in action. The youngster was hooked by witnessing Cuban stars like Orestes Miñoso and U.S.-born players perform in the island circuit.

His family left Cuba in the days following the Cuban Revolution. They settled in Miami, where they remade their lives. Baseball remained a constant for the family even though they were separated from their homeland, much like so many others in the Cuban community in the United States.

Pi-González dreamed of one day making the big leagues. He did, behind a mic. He has been both a witness to history and its narrator for many listeners in the Bay Area and across the Americas, calling thousands of games. He shared his journey from Cuba to the big leagues with La Vida Baseball, discussing who influenced his career and those he has aided during his decades broadcasting.

La Vida Baseball: What sparked your love of baseball? Was it something passed down through your family?

Amaury Pi González: It was definitely passed down through the family. My father Joaquin used to take me to the Cuban Winter Baseball League in the late 1950s. The league had four teams—before Fidel Castro eradicated all professional sports in the island and named himself and his government Marxist-Leninist. The teams were: Leones del Habana (Havana Lions), Alacranes del Almendares (Almendares Scorpions), Tigres de Marianao (Marianao Tigers), and Elefantes del Cienfuegos (Cienfuegos Elephants). The Cuban League was considered “The League” in Latin America for American big league players, who usually went to Cuba to play in the winter. Many players from that generation have told me that Cuba was the highest-paying professional league aside from Major League Baseball at the time.

LVB: As a Cubano, what has baseball meant to you? What would you want all baseball fans to know about the passion that Cubans have for baseball, now and historically?

APG: As a Cubano, baseball was my passion ever since I can remember. In Cuba, baseball is like Fútbol/Soccer in Brazil. It’s more than a sport. It is like a religion. And it is the one constant in the island, doesn’t matter what generation. Cubans have been playing baseball since the 1860s and were the first Latinos to have a professional player in the U.S. leagues when Esteban Bellán in 1871 became the first Latin American-born player in a U.S. professional baseball league. Cubans then taught the game to other countries in Latin America.

LVB: What would be your dream team as a broadcaster—if you could pick who you would work with side-by-side as Latino broadcasters?

APG: My dream team was working with Rafael “Felo” Ramírez, the voice of the Florida and Miami Marlins from 1993 to 2017. When he died at the age of 94, and had still been broadcasting Marlins baseball. I did work with Felo during 1998 playoffs for Latino Broadcasting Network (LBC) and CARACOL, a Colombia-based company. I would have loved to share the microphone with Felo during his tenure in Miami, but it was not to be.

I still miss Felo, who also called over 40 Caribbean World Series and was truly my inspiration to go into the baseball broadcast business, since my days in Cuba, where I had two careers in mind. My fantasy was to work as a baseball announcer with Felo and the other one was studying to be an architect in Cuba. The political situation in the island would not afford me that opportunity as I left Cuba in 1961.

I have yet to return to Cuba and most likely will never unless there is a major change in the politics of Cuba where freedom and liberty is enjoyed by all. The United States has been good to me. I arrived with only my suitcase in hand and I have been inducted into three Hall of Fames and nominated many times for the Ford C. Frick award. Not too bad for a 17-year-old Cuban refugee.

LVB: You have seen a lot of great Latino players as a fan and as a broadcaster. Who are some of your favorites?

APG: I have two favorite all-time players. My favorite Cuban player and Latino player was Cuban-born Orestes (Minnie) Miñoso. Brooks Robinson is my favorite American player. As a kid I saw them both play in Cuba—Minnie with Marianao and Brooks with Cienfuegos. Although I called some of Cuban-born José Canseco’s first games in the majors and many other players, even interviewed the great Hank Aaron after he broke Babe Ruth home run record, those two are always at the top of my list. Here is why. As a kid growing up in Miami (after I left Cuba) I was a ball boy and bat boy at the old Miami Stadium during the years the Orioles held their spring training home there. I happened to see Brooks Robinson up close and met him. Orestes Miñoso was my favorite, not only because he was born in Cuba, but because I interviewed him when he played with the Chicago White Sox. One year he sat with me during an entire broadcast in Spanish I was doing in Chicago. He is the only man in modern history to have played in five different decades. He once told me “I would have played for free, just to be in the big leagues.” He was an honorable man who gave his all on the field.

LVB: You’ve announced for several major league teams. How did you get involved in broadcasting? Who were some of the key individuals who aided you along the way? Who are some of those you aided get their start?

APG: I have been fortunate to share the microphone with some of the most famous Spanish baseball voices. A journalist from Cuba by the name of Efraín Osorio, who was editor of a Spanish-language weekly in Newark, New Jersey, took me under his wings, after I was discharged honorably from the US Army in 1969. I learned a lot from Mr. Osorio, and some of my first published writings in Spanish were in La Voz News in Newark.

I am considered a pioneer in establishing Spanish baseball play by play announcing in the San Francisco/Oakland/San José Bay Area. I am the first Spanish major league play-by-play announcer to have broadcast for four different teams: Oakland Athletics, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners and Los Angeles Angels. I am also the only announcer that did two major league teams at the same time in two different leagues—SF Giants and Seattle Mariners—home games for both teams.

The following Spanish announcers got their start with yours truly: ex-major leaguer Rigoberto (Tito) Fuentes in Oakland; Erwin Higueros in San Francisco; ex-major leaguer Julio Cruz and also Alex Rivera in Seattle. Back with Oakland in the 2000s. There was also Manolo Hernández-Douen veteran baseball writer and member of the BBWAA.

I have been privileged to have worked for U.S. and international broadcasts with some of the most famous in the business like Felo Ramírez, who was my mentor and whom I used to listen while I was a kid in Cuba. Then in 1998 I had the good fortune of working with him. My mother Olga used to tell me that as a kid I would grab a broom, turn it upside-down, and do an imitation of Felo. I have also worked with Ecuadorian-born Jaime Jarrín, the longtime voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers in Spanish. Both Ramírez and Jarrín are Ford Frick Award winners honored in the National Baseball Hall of Fame of Baseball in Cooperstown, N.Y., as broadcasters.

Others I have gotten to work with are Dominican-born Billy Berroa (deceased) who was a long-time Spanish voice for the New York Mets, Evelio Areas Mendoza from Nicaragua, and also Eduardo Ortega of the San Diego Padres. When I was the Spanish play by play voice on Fox Sports LA, I teamed up with José Mota. We did radio and television of the L.A. Angels of Anaheim.

LVB: As a broadcaster, what have been your favorite games that you have called?

APG: One game that I would forever remember, not because of the action on the field, but because of its relevance in baseball history was that of October 17, 1989. I was at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, as the Spanish Voice for the Athletics during the World Series. Just a few minutes after 5 p.m., a 6.9 earthquake shook the Bay Area. That series was postponed by then Commissioner Fay Vincent for 11 days. At the end, the A’s swept the Giants, winning for the first time since the Charlie Finley days. Others World Series I have called included the 1988 and 1990 World Series for the A’s—those didn’t turn out as well for Oakland. In 1986, I worked with Juan Vené in New York and for LBC and CARACOL, to broadcast the World Series between the Mets and the Boston Red Sox.

Other big moments I also called were Cuban-born Rafael Palmeiro’s 3,000 hit while the Orioles were in Seattle. I also got to call some of José Canseco and Barry Bonds great moments. When I was in Seattle, I witnessed the first part of Ichiro Suzuki’s great career—which will likely result in his being the first Japanese player inducted in Cooperstown. There have been many, many other great moments too many to mention, from 1977 to present day.

LVB: Thanks for sharing your journey in baseball that took you from Cuba to the broadcast booth. Fans can listen to Amaury Pi-González on A’s broadcast on KIQI (1010 AM) and KATD (990 AM) in Oakland.

Featured Image: Courtesy Amaury Pi-González

Inset Images: Courtesy Amaury Pi-González