After a muted Christmas, Puerto Rico looks to baseball

Dark streets. Shuttered doors. Muted joy. That’s my snapshot of four days in Puerto Rico last week, a Christmas that very few felt like celebrating.

As an example, Jorge Fidel López Vélez, who last year published a biography of Hiram Bithorn, the first Puerto Rican to reach the major leagues, has been without power in his San Juan neighborhood since before Hurricane María, when Irma sideswiped the island on Sept. 6. That’s 118 days.

But in every crisis, there is opportunity. Catcher René Rivera, a free agent who last season played for the Mets and Cubs, made good on his promise to spread goodwill and gifts around the island. In the days leading up to Christmas, he played Santa, delivering 25,000 toys collected in the States to 100 communities.

Rivera’s slogan was #NoKidLoseHope. Now the Roberto Clemente Professional Baseball League is pushing so that no fans lose hope, moving up the start date of its already truncated 2018 season by one day, to Jan. 5.

“The first impulse was to cancel the season,” RCPBL president Héctor Rivera Cruz said. “That would have been the easy decision.”

Cry, or get right back up

On an island where a taxi driver must wait four hours at Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport to earn a $20 fare, where numerous businesses have not reopened due either to damages or a lack of power and patrons, where FEMA blue tarps are the only roofing for many homes, where more than 283,000 people have migrated to Florida in the past three months, the league has forged ahead against all odds.

During a press conference in San Juan attended by La Vida Baseball last week, league executives and community leaders, including Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, emphasized the value of going the extra mile to make the season happen.

“When you are down, you got two options,” Yulín Cruz said. “You can cry. Or you can get right back up. When a country needs to change and transform itself, sports is a tool.”

The season was cut from its usual 40 games to 18, and from five teams to four, to keep it as manageable as possible.

The return of a baseball lifer

Players and coaches reported to practice the day after Christmas, including Max “Mako” Oliveras, 71, the winningest manager in league history who has earned seven championships and two Caribbean Series titles.

Before Edwin Rodríguez and Sandy Alomar Jr., the first Puerto Ricans to manage in the major leagues; before Álex Cora and Dave Martínez, the new skippers of the Red Sox and Nationals, there was Mako — a baseball lifer who never got his cup of coffee in the major leagues, yet made a name for himself skippering minor and winter league teams all over the Caribbean, the U.S. and Canada, including the Triple-A Edmonton Trappers.

Now, after a seven-year hiatus, he returns to the RCPBL to pilot the Cangrejeros (Crabbers) de Santurce, a symbolic signing in the most unusual of seasons.

“It keeps me young,” Oliveras said in Spanish during an interview with La Vida Baseball last week, explaining why he decided to return to the dugout. “I think that this is the right thing to do. Besides putting me back to work, it will offer folks a lot of joy and give them a distraction that is much needed.”

In this alliance between the public and sporting sectors, there are various arguments in favor of playing ball. The Cangrejeros’ home park — Hiram Bithorn Stadium, named after the first Puerto Rican to play in the majors — belongs to the city of San Juan. Yulín Cruz said that every game will provide 50 direct jobs — ticket-takers, ushers, concessions, groundskeepers, security and maintenance — and another 50 indirect jobs.

In turn, the Cangrejeros will hold 30 youth clinics in the San Juan metropolitan area, giving back to the community much like Clemente did decades ago, when he played for Santurce.

“Sports is also about social development,” Yulín Cruz said.

Free admission

So, a social pact of sorts has been built into the season that will include free admission to all games, so that anyone may enjoy a game. Rivera Cruz added that Puerto Rico’s public television station, WIPR-TV, will broadcast the entire schedule, as well as stream the games online.

As a bonus, the league’s television and radio partners will broadcast the Caribbean Series, which Puerto Rico won last winter for the first time in 17 years. And if negotiations are successful, the games will also be aired in Orlando, which has become the fastest-growing Puerto Rican community in the States since the hurricanes.

Given the ongoing uncertainties over the power grid, clubs will play four days a week, Thursday through Sunday, at Hiram Bithorn Stadium and Isidoro “Cholo” García Stadium in Mayaguez. All games will take place during the month of January, giving new meaning to the phrase “short season.”

Rivera Cruz said that the league-wide salary cap remains at $500,000, or $125,000 per team. Even though the league decided against using importados, or imported players, relying exclusively on homegrown talent, mainly from the lower minors, it will count on several major leaguers.

The Cangrejeros’ lineup includes infielder Iván de Jesús Jr., who played with the Reds in 2016; outfielder Reymond “Rey” Fuentes, who saw limited time last season with the Diamondbacks and remains on the 40-man roster, and catching prospect A.J. Jiménez, who debuted last Sept. 6 with the Texas Rangers.

Meanwhile, the Indios (Indians) de Mayaguez have announced that they have permission to use lefty Álex Claudio, who pitched in 70 games and saved 11 for the Rangers last season, finishing with a 4-2 record and a 2.50 ERA.

An off offseason

For players based in Puerto Rico, especially those whose families were severely impacted by María, this offseason has admittedly been a challenge. About two dozen under contract to the RCPBL ended up being loaned out to winter league teams in Mexico, Dominican Republic and Venezuela through Dec. 31, when they were expected to return to their clubs in Puerto Rico.

Fuentes, a lanky 6-foot left-handed hitter, was not so fortunate. He told Puerto Rican daily newspaper El Nuevo Día that he went two months without working out.

“There are still people without power and you need it to train,” Fuentes said. “Your game depends a lot on your fitness. If you don’t train properly, you will get injured. And if you get injured, you won’t be able to play. We’ll have to keep that in mind.”

“It’s going to be an interesting winter season,” Fuentes admitted. “But thankfully, it’s going to happen. Thank God that we can now try to bring the people together, so they can relax a bit and support us.”

In the land of Clemente, baseball is still king. The rise of Los Rubios, aka Team Puerto Rico, was selected as the 2017 story of the year by many in the sporting media after an enthralling run in the World Baseball Classic.

Puerto Rico may be in crisis, but enough people are convinced that returning to the diamond is the right thing to do. After a subdued Christmas, they are hoping for a much different snapshot of life in January — and a joy nurtured by the crack of the bat and the roar of the crowd.

Featured Image: Clemson Smith Muñiz / La Vida Baseball

Inset Image 1: René Rivera Twitter

Inset Image 2: Clemson Smith Muñiz / La Vida Baseball