2024-04-07 19:00:22
Text: Editorial Cuba Noticias 360
Photo: Joel Sánchez / Instagram
At 21 years old, Joel Sánchez Niño is about to enter the history of Cuban baseball. The young left-handed pitcher appears on the final roster of Santiago de Cuba for the 63rd National Series, but the most striking thing is his place of birth: Pamplona, Spain, which would make him the first foreign player recorded in more than six decades.
So far, the news revealed by the Cubalite portal does not give an account of another player born outside the island who has participated in the domestic championships after 1959, “although we would have to search carefully to verify if any have existed,” warns the publication. .
But regardless of whether he is the first foreigner or not, the fact that a Spaniard is going to participate in the National Series is already something worth highlighting, since he has developed most of his career in the European country and would be point of encountering a different baseball, from organization to quality.
Sánchez Niño (April 30, 2002) debuted in the Spanish Honor Division in 2019 and has remained in that top category to this day, always wearing the colors of Baseball Navarra. In the last two seasons he appeared in 22 games (six as a starter), with a 1-3 record, a 7.91 ERA, one save, 49 walks and 60 strikeouts in 58 innings and they hit .343.
“I started young in the Honor Division, it is a league that is not so well known but it is tough, because there are many players who come from Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Cuba… It is supported by former professional players. There I started as a pitcher and outfielder,” he told the aforementioned online magazine.
As time went by, the man from Pamplona specialized as a pitcher and in that decision he recognizes the role of two Cuban coaches. “I have to thank two people who have helped me a lot on my team: coach Pedro Raúl Hernández, who was with Villa Clara in the National Series, and my teammate, Santiago pitcher Digney Arévalo.”
Precisely, the latter was the one who established the bridge for Sánchez to explore the unprecedented possibility of playing in the National Series. “When I told Digney that he wanted to come to Cuba to play, at first he was a little skeptical. But seeing that I was serious, he contacted pitching coach Alfonso Román and I was able to come with an already established guide,” he said.
But Joel Sánchez’s love affair with Cuban baseball transcends the imminent possibility of entering the history of this sport that is the passion of an entire country. Since he was little, as he reveals in the interview, his father, originally from Santiago, instilled in him a love of baseball and they even considered the possibility of traveling to Cuba to join the EIDE.
“In 2017 I asked for Cuban nationality and due to fate it came to me in 2021. In 2022 I decide to come and play in the U-23 National Championship. I started in the preselection, but the tournament did not take place on the scheduled date,” he narrated.
His opportunity came recently when he was able to try his luck in the Provincial Series with the Guamá team, after which he was included in the Avsipas preselection with a view to Series 63. “Things went well for me, I threw 13 innings and I didn’t accept any career, and that performance allowed me to earn a place in the reserves,” he said.
The process of adaptation to Cuban reality has not been a problem for Joel either, nor was receiving the relevant authorizations to compete in Cuba: “In the end, by having Cuban nationality, I am just another Cuban and I have the same rights. Furthermore, I have been living here for a long time, I have made many friends in baseball, I like the atmosphere of this country. I repeat, I have not had any problems.”
Of course, something that does concern him is what he can achieve on the field, since all eyes will be on him, but even so he has defined his objective: “I know that it is a league that has a level, that everyone has their role and that, along with the other left-hander, we are only two rookies among the Santiago pitchers. My role is clear and, when the time comes, I will play it to the fullest.”
On March 9, Las Tunas will host Industriales at the Julio Antonio Mella stadium, in the classic confrontation between champion and runner-up from the previous competition to inaugurate the Series. However, a little further east, at the Guillermón Moncada in Santiago, Joel Sánchez will experience the excitement of putting on the legendary Wasps’ suit for the first time when they host the Guantánamo Indians.