2023-04-28 02:12:38
No matter how famous Cuban cigars are, I can’t imagine someone capable of lifting an entire stadium from their seats with a jit of gold working in a tobacco plantation. Fortunately, Osmel Solano is back in baseball, now with the Artemis Hunters.
He is no longer the boy that his mother took to the Capitán San Luis stadium, in Pinar del Río, and he dreamed of being a baseball player. He is 37 years old. He appeared in a few National Series with just 162 times at bat, until the current season, when everything changed: in 70 times, he had 32 hits, drove in 26 runs and leads hitters with a phenomenal .457 average.
“Thanks to Alfonso Urquiola I made my way in the Pinar del Río team. What happened then? What could happen in any other team. They did not give me the confidence that a baseball player deserves, because he was not someone established. I did play with Urquiola: he gave me maximum confidence; he even told me that when he left, I would never make the team again.
“My numbers helped me integrate the preselection, I batted and then they didn’t put me in the team, or only when they remembered. They shut me down. Every year he had to eliminate me, and it was the last. That’s why I quit baseball.
“I worked in tobacco harvests with some friends who welcomed me. Many told me “you have to play ball”, and I played on Sundays, but I no longer wanted to.
“This year, a coach from the Sugar League saw me and took me to the team on November 30. From there, Osmel Fraga, who was a baseball player for Artemisa, called me to play the Provincial Series with Candelaria… and I thank him from the bottom of my heart. I had good numbers, they drafted me, and here I am, giving it my all for the Hunters.”
In a long time, neither people from Matanzas nor Artemisa will forget the ninth inning of the first match between the two, at the 26 de Julio stadium. The hosts lost by one run, loaded the bases and with two outs appeared Osmel Solano. He was 3-3 in the game… and he fired his fourth jit!
“I have had other good moments. In Pinar I decided on playoff matches. I was champion in the 50 Series, being a rookie. But that at-bat for me has been the biggest thing.”
And if his love of baseball has shone brighter in the bow-and-arrow jersey, it wasn’t just to make room for him on the 40-player roster.
“I have been under various directions, and I have confessed it to the director Yulieski González himself; I have had two with that confidence: Alfonso Urquiola’s and his.
“For me, Artemisa’s success lies in the confidence that the director and the coaches have given us, beyond physical fitness. Yulieski talks to each one, lets them play; if you make a mistake he supports you and tells you to go ahead. His confidence is the greatest thing this team has ”.
Motivation is paramount; however, everyone praises the preparation that supports that faith.
“My preparation has been very strong. He hadn’t played ball for almost five years. When I arrived, I said it: I come with a lack of training; he didn’t do weights or anything. And he put coaches aside for me, to field ground balls, to work on the physical; he supported me a lot.
“Yulieski worked with me personally, to field third. She advised me, because that is not my position but the gardens, but it was necessary because of Dayán’s departure for Mexico. We talked and he told me that he was going to play.
“And Balaguer, the hitting coach, has not only been that but also my idol, another father, a friend, a brother. I dedicate my sacrifice to him. He changed my hitting system, and he still works with me. It doesn’t stop. I thank you for my physical form”.
Apparently, this Phoenix reborn from its ashes who lives in Herradura, Consolación del Sur municipality in Pinar del Río, has become an artemiseño at heart.
“I decided, not now because I am here and things are going well for me: with Pinar del Río I will not play again. I told Yulieski that I’m staying here. Unless they don’t want me anymore, I’ll play the Hunters as long as I keep performing.”
#Osmel #Solano #Hunter #heart