Los sucesos del 09 de marzo de 2011 en el primer inning de un juego entre los Bravos de Atlanta y los Cardenales de San Luis, hicieron que mi memoria tratara de nivelar el momento dif\u00c3\u00adcil de conocer que Luis Salazar hab\u00c3\u00ada recibido un pelotazo descomunal en la cara, cuando un batazo de Brian McCann se estrell\u00c3\u00b3 entre su nariz y su ojo izquierdo mientras ve\u00c3\u00ada el juego parado desde el dugout.<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0A comienzos de la d\u00c3\u00a9cada de los ochenta escuch\u00c3\u00a9 una canci\u00c3\u00b3n publicitaria: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00c2\u00a1Ah\u00c3\u00ad viene La Guaira! \u00c2\u00a1Por Radio Rumbos! El Musi\u00c3\u00ba le dice \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc\u00c2\u00a1Lo mejor del mundo!\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Eran los tiempos de aquella insurgente guerrilla de Argenis Salazar, Gustavo Polidor, Oswaldo Guill\u00c3\u00a9n, Alfredo Pedrique, Raul P\u00c3\u00a9rez Tovar, Norman Carrasco, Caf\u00c3\u00a9 Mart\u00c3\u00adnez, Luis Salazar era una especie de decano del grupo.<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0Salazar ten\u00c3\u00ada (y tiene) planeado dirigir al equipo Lynchburg de la Carolina League A. Este mi\u00c3\u00a9rcoles 23 de marzo se present\u00c3\u00b3 al campo de entrenamientos de los Bravos luego de dos semanas en el hospital donde los m\u00c3\u00a9dicos le comunicaron que hab\u00c3\u00ada perdido el ojo.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Soy muy afortunado de estar vivo. Dios me dio una segunda oportunidad en esta vida. Y la aprovechar\u00c3\u00a9\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n
La m\u00c3\u00basica pegajosa segu\u00c3\u00ada rebotando en la tribuna central del estadio Universitario. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6est\u00c3\u00a1 Polidor, Carrasco tambi\u00c3\u00a9n. Alfredo Pedrique y Oswaldo Guill\u00c3\u00a9n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0Una de las primeras an\u00c3\u00a9cdotas que escuch\u00c3\u00a9 de Luis Salazar estaba relacionada a la vez que lo dejaron libre en su primera incursi\u00c3\u00b3n al b\u00c3\u00a9isbol organizado de Estados Unidos. Regres\u00c3\u00b3 a Venezuela y Pedro Padr\u00c3\u00b3n Panza le consigui\u00c3\u00b3 trabajo en una panader\u00c3\u00ada hasta que empezara la temporada venezolana en octubre. Salazar trabaj\u00c3\u00b3 como un b\u00c3\u00a1rbaro en la panader\u00c3\u00ada. Cuando lleg\u00c3\u00b3 octubre fue el primero que lleg\u00c3\u00b3 a los entrenamientos. Se convirti\u00c3\u00b3 en inamovible de la alineaci\u00c3\u00b3n litoralense y regres\u00c3\u00b3 al norte para escalar posiciones hasta llegar a Grandes Ligas.<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0McCann visit\u00c3\u00b3 a Salazar varias veces despu\u00c3\u00a9s del accidente.<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Brian McCann es un muchacho muy sensitivo, estaba muy preocupado por mi salud\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, dijo Salazar. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hablamos casi tres horas. Le dije que lo que me ocurri\u00c3\u00b3 le puede ocurrir a cualquiera. Le dije que siguiera adelante y olvidara el incidente\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6con P\u00c3\u00a9rez Tovar y Caf\u00c3\u00a9 Mart\u00c3\u00adnez\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.Ah\u00c3\u00ad viene La Guaira\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.por Radio Rumbos\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. M\u00c3\u00a1s adelante Salazar tuvo una lesi\u00c3\u00b3n muy grave en una rodilla. Cuando todos pensaban que hasta all\u00c3\u00ad llegaba la carrera de Salazar como pelotero, se ha mandado un programa de rehabilitaci\u00c3\u00b3n con una voluntad espartana que dej\u00c3\u00b3 a todo el mundo fr\u00c3\u00ado para regresar a las Grandes Ligas al tope de sus facultades.<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0Salazar, qui\u00c3\u00a9n jug\u00c3\u00b3 13 a\u00c3\u00b1os en Grandes Ligas, est\u00c3\u00a1 en su primer a\u00c3\u00b1o con la organizaci\u00c3\u00b3n de los Bravos. Fue invitado a presentarse temprano para familiarizarse con como los Bravos manejan su campamento de Grandes Ligas y estaba a ayudando en los juegos de exhibici\u00c3\u00b3n.<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0Siempre recuerdo a Salazar como un bateador de bolas malas. Las iba a buscar arriba o abajo y descargaba unos batazos entre dos que igual dejaban contra la pared al contrario.\u00c2\u00a0 Y si le lanzaban en la zona de strike castigaba con m\u00c3\u00a1s furia al lanzador.<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Agradezco a todos los que rezaron por m\u00c3\u00ad\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, dijo Salazar. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mucha gente se preocup\u00c3\u00b3 por m\u00c3\u00ad. Los buenos amigos aparecen en los tiempos dif\u00c3\u00adciles.\u00c2\u00a0 Eso fue lo que pas\u00c3\u00b3 conmigo\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6el gran Luis Salazar, y Argenis tambi\u00c3\u00a9n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6el Musi\u00c3\u00ba le dice: Lo mejor del mundo\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0McCann est\u00c3\u00a1 impresionado por la actitud de Salazar: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Es una persona excepcional\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, dijo McCann. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Considera el haber perdido su ojo, como algo positivo respecto a lo que pudo haber pasado. Est\u00c3\u00a1 vivo. Eso es lo m\u00c3\u00a1s importante\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0Alfonso L. Tusa C.<\/p>\n
English translation<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0What happened\u00c2\u00a0 on March 09, 2011; in the first frame of a game between the Atlanta Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals filled my memory with a lot of stories trying to fix the difficult moment of knowing that Luis Salazar had been struck in the face by a Brian McCann shot that exploded between his left eye and his nose while watching the game from the dugout.<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0At the beginning of the 1980\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s I heard this jingle: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Here it comes La Guaira, on Radio Rumbos. El Musi\u00c3\u00ba calls it \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcThe best baseball team in the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. Those were the days of Argenis Salazar, Gustavo Polidor, Oswaldo Guill\u00c3\u00a9n, Alfredo Pedrique, Raul P\u00c3\u00a9rez Tovar, Norman Carrasco, Caf\u00c3\u00a9 Mart\u00c3\u00adnez, Luis Salazar was a kind of the dean of the group.<\/p>\n
Salazar had (and has) in his plans to manage the Lynchburg team at the Carolina League Class A at the Atlanta Braves farm system. This March, 23rd he went to the Braves\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 training camp after two weeks at the hospital where the physicians told him he had lost his left eye. “I’m very fortunate to be alive,” said Salazar. “God gave me a second chance in this life, and I’m going to take advantage of it.”<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0The sticky music kept bouncing through the stands in the estadio Universitario de Caracas. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6It is Polidor and also Carrasco. Alfredo Pedrique and Oswaldo Guill\u00c3\u00a9n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0One of the first stories I heard about \u00c2\u00a0Luis Salazar was related to the time when he was released during his first trip to the USA minor leagues. He came back to Venezuela and Pedro Padr\u00c3\u00b3n Panza (the owner of La Guaira Sharks) found a job for him at a bakery until it began the venezuelan Winter league in October. Salazar worked very hard at the bakery. When it came October he was the first one at the training camp. He became a fixture in the La Guaira Sharks line up and went back to north to climb steps until arriving to MLB.<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0McCann visited Salazar several times after the accident.<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0“Brian McCann is a very sensitive kid and he was worried about my health,” Salazar said. “We talked for about three hours. I told him what happened could happen to anybody. I told him move on and forget the incident.”<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 with P\u00c3\u00a9rez Tovar and Caf\u00c3\u00a9 Mart\u00c3\u00adnez\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.Here it comes La Guaira\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6on Radio Rumbos\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Later on Salazar had a serious injury in a knee. When everybody thought his baseball career as a player was over, he developed a great recovery program with such a strong determination. Everyone got amazed when Salazar got back to play at MLB at the top of his conditions.<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0Salazar, who played for 13 years in MLB, is in his first year with the Braves organization. He was invited to camp early to familiarize himself with how the Braves run their major league camp and was helping out during exhibition games.<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0I remember Salazar as a bad pitches batter. He chased them\u00c2\u00a0 above or below the strike zone and hit sharp line drives to the gap that put the rivals against the wall. And if the pitcher threw him in the zone he hit the ball even harder.<\/p>\n
“I appreciate everyone who prayed for me,” Salazar said. “A lot of people care about me. In difficult times, that is when good friends show up. And that is what happened to me.”<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6the great Luis Salazar\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6and also Argenis\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6..El Musi\u00c3\u00ba calls it: \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcthe best baseball team in the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n
McCann is amazed at his resilience.<\/p>\n
“His attitude is off the charts,” McCann said. “He’s looking at (losing his eye) as a positive with what could have happened. He’s alive. That’s the most important thing.”<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0Alfonso L. Tusa C.<\/p>\n
Alfonso\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work has been featured in Venezuela\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s daily newspaper, El Nacional and in the magazine Gente en Ambiente, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s collaborated on several articles for newspapers, including the daily paper Tal Cual. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also written three books and biographies for SABR\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s BioProject.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Los sucesos del 09 de marzo de 2011 en el primer inning de un juego entre los Bravos de Atlanta y los Cardenales de San Luis, hicieron que mi memoria tratara de nivelar el momento dif\u00c3\u00adcil de conocer que Luis Salazar hab\u00c3\u00ada recibido un pelotazo descomunal en la cara, cuando un batazo de Brian McCann se estrell\u00c3\u00b3 entre su nariz y su ojo izquierdo mientras ve\u00c3\u00ada el juego parado desde el dugout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[13912,13913,13914,901,3643,9782,13922,13924,145,13919,13920,13918,13916,4721,8115,13925,13921,13923,13917,13915],"class_list":["post-13122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-actitud","tag-alfredo-pedrique","tag-argenis-salazar","tag-bravos-de-atlanta","tag-brian-mccann","tag-cardenales-de-san-luis","tag-carrasco","tag-decano","tag-dugout","tag-entrenamientos","tag-grandes-ligas","tag-insurgente","tag-la-guaira","tag-la-tribuna","tag-lynchburg","tag-nariz","tag-oswaldo","tag-panza","tag-polidor","tag-radio-rumbos"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}