Text: Raúl del Pino
Photo: RRSS
The name of Eduardo Medina Fernández should not say much to sports fans in Cuba, but if the nickname “Veneno” is mentioned, everyone will immediately remember that small and gray-haired man who for decades sat in the same seat in the area right of the Latin American stadium supporting their Industriales.
On Saturday morning, he burst into the Cuban capital with the sad news of the sudden death of Medina Fernández, victim of a heart attack. According to versions taken from Facebook, he had been in Artemisa on Friday afternoon precisely after the footsteps of the Lions in the current National Series.
Born in the municipality of Taguasco, in Sancti Spíritus, as a child he moved to Havana and there began his passion for the most winning Cuban baseball team, an idyll that grew over the years to the point of taking him to almost all the provinces. of the country to offer their support.
Since his death was made public, a large number of journalists, players, coaches and baseball fans in general have lamented the event on social networks.
Norland Rosendo, from Juventud Rebelde, reviewed: “They say that Veneno died, that his heart cracked. I say that it is not true, that is the healthiest poison that has ever been invented. An Industriales fan who was loved throughout Cuba.”
In one of the comments, the stellar pitching trainer José Manuel Cortina also expressed his regret. “Life is a breath of nothing, a doubt, a clemency, a gust of absence, thrown across the ground. How can such a good and charismatic person leave us and there are still people who live with that atrocious selfishness”, reflected the coach from Pinar del Río.
For his part, Boris Luis Cabrera, one of the flagship reporters of the Industriales, shared a photograph that he had recently taken of Medina Fernández in the subseries between the blue team and the Spiritus Roosters.
“Sitting there in the same position that he chose as a child, because someone told him that it was the best place to watch the baseball game. I never imagined that it would be the last. Cuban baseball is in mourning today. It will be very strange now to attend the Latin American and not see it,” wrote the journalist from Tribuna de La Habana.
In an interview offered some time ago to Score Sports Magazine, “Veneno” had confessed that he always sat in the same place “because as a child he did not come alone, and since my family sympathized with the Villareño teams, we always located ourselves by the stands of first base, and that’s how I ended up staying here.”
From now on, many industrialist fans began to ask that a statue be made of him in that part of the stadium, as the also historical Armandito “El Tintonero” has on the left side. It would be an excellent tribute to the memory of a man who, beyond his love for the Industriales, showed that baseball in Cuba is much more than a game.