2024-04-17 00:37:36
Photo: El Nuevo Herald
Text: Editorial Cuba Noticias 360
Cuban sports and baseball in particular were shaken this Saturday upon learning of the surprising death of the legendary Cuban baseball player José “Cheíto” Rodríguez at the age of 65.
The first information about his death was known through social networks.
On her Facebook page, Eneida Ríos, wife of former baseball player Víctor Mesa, and old friend of “Cheíto”, broke the news and revealed that his death was due to a heart attack. He was undergoing a dialysis process.
“Cheíto”, originally from Cienfuegos, was one of those players who experts always considered would have shone in the Major Leagues, but despite the offers he did not decide to leave the country.
He played third base and was a member of the Cuba World Champion teams in Colombia 1976, Italy 1978, Japan 1980 and Cuba 1984. He won a gold medal in the VII, VIII and IX Pan American Games and in the XIII Central American and Caribbean Games and a silver medal in the XIV, Havana 1982.
When he debuted in the National Series, he set a record for a rookie. He was third in home runs with 11, a new rookie record that lasted 27 years, despite the later introduction of the aluminum bat and the live ball.
He was the best slugger between 1974-1985 and the number one in the Cuban third base. This last year he saw his career cut short when he was sanctioned indefinitely for possession of foreign currency according to the criticized law of the time.
That year in which his career was interrupted, he was 29 years old and had twelve series played, and he ranked second in home runs with 276, only 15 home runs behind Antonio Muñoz, but with six series and years less than his teammate.
He returned four years after the ban to the national series, but he was not the same and opted to retire shortly after.
In 1978 he set a record for home runs for a National Championship in the ’78 Selective Series with 28 in 60 games. In the final game of the Championship he hit his 100th home run and caused his team, Las Villas, to be in a play off with Pinar del Río, finally decided by him with a home run against Rogelio García. In the Central Americans in Medellín he set a record for home runs and RBIs with 15 home runs and 37 RBIs in only 45 official times at bat.
Leader in home runs in the two Central American Games he participated in, in a Pan American Games, a Cup and a World Cup. He is the second with the most home runs hit in Central Americans. He has the best record of home runs by a Cuban with the 68 he hit in the 1978 season, including the 44 in the national campaign and the 24 in the international arena, also a current record.
In the Pan American Games in Puerto Rico 79 he was the leader in batting and records in home runs. In October of that year, he was the great figure of the IV Intercontinental Cup in Cuba with a record of 3 home runs in a game against Panama. He was the hero against the United States when in the first game against the northerners he hit two cosmic home runs through center field to left-handed star Ken Dayley. At the end of the Cup, he was the leader in hits, runs scored, home runs, RBIs, bases run and slugging. He selected the most useful in that tournament and for the second consecutive year among the ten most outstanding athletes in Cuba.
When he reached 1000 hits in the National Series, he was the one who achieved it in the fewest series, tied with Pedro Jova, and among all the youngest at 28 years old.
After his retirement, the star player served as a coach in National Series and abroad.
For many, “Cheíto” Rodríguez was the most spectacular of the Cuban home run hitters.