Omar Vizquel a true original, on and off the field
By César Augusto Márquez
Omar Vizquel has always had a curious mind. Any shortstop who wins 11 Gold Gloves has to be someone who is constantly thinking, anticipating plays, figuring out angles, knowing the different options.
But the 1994 labor stoppage — when the World Series was canceled and baseball did not resume until the following season — had Vizquel at a loss. He was in Sarasota, Fla., when he saw a piece by Peter Max, an American master of pop art, in a gallery window.
An artist was born.
“I’ve always been interested in the arts,” Vizquel said in Spanish in an interview with La Vida Baseball. “My parents, Eucarys and Omar, taught me to appreciate art. During the 1994 labor stoppage, I finally had enough free time to learn how to paint. And I found out I was good at it.”
Vizquel, 50, started with pencil drawings. He moved on to watercolors and now dabbles in oils and acrylics. While he admires Old Masters like Rembrandt, Caravaggio and Tiepolo, he’s really a high-energy renaissance man. Besides painting, he sculpts, and he also plays music — he’s a percussionist who is a bit of a rock ‘n’ roll drummer.
“I admire Metallica’s music, and also Serj Tankian and System of a Down,” Vizquel said. “I know about the new trends in reggaetón through my wife, who’s always showing me the music she prefers, like Chino, who is not with Nacho anymore,” he says of the Venezuelan pop duo. “But I’m really a rock guy.”
Energy and bright colors
When painting, Vizquel eschews canvas for heavyweight paper that he hangs in the living room or garage of his home in Seattle. His work features a lot of energy and bright colors — a reflection of the joy Vizquel takes in all of his creative endeavors. You can see it on his face as he talks about his pieces, or as he sits and drums to a song.
Art and music also provide Vizquel an outlet for his quick mind, as a quote on his Instagram account @OmarVizquel13, attests: “Always in search of the unexpected and to the edge of the limits. I live day to day and minute to minute. I improvise and I’m like the salmon” — a symbol of rebirth and movement.
“I have enormous respect for artists,” Vizquel said. “But I don’t consider myself one because I don’t live from the arts. I like to study them. In my free time, I’m always trying to learn new techniques.”
Vizquel has had exhibitions across the country, as well as internationally; his works sometimes sell for thousands of dollars.
Next week, two days after he finds out whether he was voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in his first year on the ballot, he will celebrate an opening in Galería Arte Bortot in Panama.
“People like my work,” Vizquel said. “For the Panama exhibit, I’ve sent more than 40 pieces.”
Gold Glove Artist
Vizquel was also quite the artist on the diamond, playing 24 seasons with flair and grace while winning nine straight Gold Gloves, from 1993 to 2001. He played 2,709 games at shortstop — the most in history — and is fifth overall with 8,050 assists at all positions. His 7,676 assists at shortstop are good for third all-time.
For the Cleveland Indians, Vizquel and Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar turned double plays like two synchronized dancers, skipping and gliding, sometimes in midair.
Only Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith won more Gold Gloves (13) at the position. And though he lacked offensive pop, Vizquel finished with 2,877 hits, which makes him the all-time leader among Venezuelans.
Whether that’s enough to gain entry into Cooperstown remains to be seen. As of Jan. 17, Ryan Thibodaux’s BBHOF Tracker was showing 59 votes for Vizquel out of 195 publicly revealed ballots — 30.3 percent. While way below the 75 percent threshold for election, it seemed enough to guarantee that he will remain eligible next year.
Vizquel’s legacy is being measured, fairly or not, by unfavorable analytics that don’t give him credit for style. Like an artist warily awaiting the critics’ reviews on opening night, he politely declines to talk about his work on the diamond or his Cooperstown candidacy.
“Of course, I would like to be elected,” he said. “But I’m done playing and it’s not up to me to pass judgment.”
Chicago White Sox
Nonetheless, baseball remains Vizquel’s primary focus. After four seasons coaching with the Detroit Tigers, he’s back with the Chicago White Sox, for whom he’ll skipper the high Single-A Winston-Salem Dash and jumpstart his dream of managing in the major leagues.
But if he can find the time, Vizquel won’t be too far away from vibrant art and indie music scenes in North Carolina, especially in the Raleigh-Durham area.
Among his favorite artists is the late Alirio Palacios, a Venezuelan visual artist known for his drawings, graphic designs, printmaking and sculptures. In the same vein, he loves Odd Nerdrum, a Norwegian figurative painter collected by museums worldwide who also cites Rembrandt and Caravaggio as influences.
“I like the work of so many people that it’s difficult to name them all,” Vizquel said. “Odd Nerdrum’s work touches me.”
Vizquel’s artistic interests are broad. He’s currently into collecting sofubi, or Japanese soft vinyl toys and sculptures that have become quite the rage. It all started last summer with the protests in Venezuela against the government of president Nicolás Maduro.
“During the street demonstrations, you go through a lot of anxious moments, because you have family back home, you are worried about loved ones, and it’s my country,” Vizquel said. “Surfing the Internet, I saw a graffiti that featured Mickey Mouse wearing a gas mask. That drew my attention.”
It was the work of American contemporary artist Ron English, who coined the term “POPaganda” to describe his mix of high and low cultural touchstones. It opened up another world for Vizquel, who now has more than 100 sofubi figures at home.
“I’ve got to stop buying them because I’m running out of room at home,” Vizquel said laughing.
Vizquel is both an artist and collector. But he doesn’t fear critics.
“I do this as a hobby,” he said chuckling. “All criticism is well accepted.”
Featured Image: Omar Vizquel
Inset Images: Omar Vizquel Instagram