El domingo 15 de noviembre de 2009 apreci\u00c3\u00a9 por fin el documental \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The lost son of Havana\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (El hijo perdido de La Habana) auspiciado por ESPN para recrear la vida del lanzador cubano Luis Tiant hijo. Sencillamente escalofriantes las escenas del reencuentro con su pa\u00c3\u00ads y con su familia. Las im\u00c3\u00a1genes por si solas delinean un paisaje abrumador que exprimen l\u00c3\u00a1grimas contenidas por mucho tiempo. Tiant sali\u00c3\u00b3 de Cuba en mayo de 1961, su padre le aconsej\u00c3\u00b3 no regresar porque hab\u00c3\u00adan suspendido el b\u00c3\u00a9isbol profesional en la isla, y s\u00c3\u00b3lo pudo regresar en 2007. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Demasiado tiempo\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, lament\u00c3\u00b3 el beisbolista entre abrazos y comentarios entrecortados.<\/p>\n
El documental entrevera el desarrollo de la carrera de Tiant en el b\u00c3\u00a9isbol organizado estadounidense desde que debut\u00c3\u00b3 en la Gran Carpa en 1964 con los Indios de Cleveland y domin\u00c3\u00b3 a los Yanquis con blanqueo de 4 hits en su casa, algo in\u00c3\u00a9dito en 60 a\u00c3\u00b1os. Su incandescente temporada de 1968 cuando lider\u00c3\u00b3 la Liga Americana con 1.60 de efectividad mientras dejaba marca de 21-9, 19 juegos completos, 9 blanqueos, 4 de ellos seguidos.<\/p>\n
El hombre de bigote fumanch\u00c3\u00ba, camina por las veredas, recuerda los lugares donde jugaba pelota de ni\u00c3\u00b1o, saluda y conversa con amigos en medio de miradas que traspasan la ausencia de 46 a\u00c3\u00b1os.<\/p>\n
Luego de confrontar problemas con el brazo de lanzar que lo hicieron salir de Cleveland y Minnesota, empez\u00c3\u00b3 una progresiva recuperaci\u00c3\u00b3n con los Medias Rojas, a partir de 1971 empez\u00c3\u00b3 un cambio en su mec\u00c3\u00a1nica de pitcheo debido a la lesi\u00c3\u00b3n que hab\u00c3\u00ada sufrido en el brazo. De pitcher de poder pas\u00c3\u00b3 a ser lanzador de env\u00c3\u00ados quebrados y cambios de velocidad. Se ense\u00c3\u00b1\u00c3\u00b3 a lanzar como lo hacia su padre, El Tiante..<\/p>\n
Uno de los amigos refiere un episodio de cuando Tiant hijo entrenaba en una calle de La Habana. El padre lleg\u00c3\u00b3, lo observ\u00c3\u00b3, le toc\u00c3\u00b3 el brazo. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Vas a ser un buen pitcher. Pero no tan bueno como yo\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. El hijo se pas\u00c3\u00b3 la mano por la visera. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oh, si. Yo voy a ser mejor que usted\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n
Aunque Tiant considera su debut ante Whitey Ford y los Yanquis en 1964 como su mejor d\u00c3\u00ada en el b\u00c3\u00a9isbol, su momento cumbre lleg\u00c3\u00b3 en 1975, cuando a pesar de no tener sus mejores n\u00c3\u00bameros, llev\u00c3\u00b3 a los Medias Rojas a la Serie Mundial. Meses atr\u00c3\u00a1s el senador McGovern entre otros puntos que llev\u00c3\u00b3 para discutir en La Habana entreg\u00c3\u00b3 a Fidel Castro una carta escrita por el comisionado de b\u00c3\u00a9isbol en nombre de Tiant. Castro accedi\u00c3\u00b3 a que los padres de Tiant no s\u00c3\u00b3lo lo fueran a visitar a Boston sino que se quedaran todo el tiempo que quisieran, un acto sin precedentes. Antes de un juego de la temporada regular los Medias Rojas le pidieron a Tiant que quer\u00c3\u00adan que su padre hiciera el lanzamiento inicial antes del juego que abrir\u00c3\u00ada su hijo. Fue una escena digna de la pel\u00c3\u00adcula \u00e2\u20ac\u0153El campo de los sue\u00c3\u00b1os\u00e2\u20ac\u009d con Fenway Park hirviendo de v\u00c3\u00adtores mientras Tiant Sr. se quitaba el saco para desarrollar su wind-up hacia las mascota de Carlton Fisk. Tiant blanque\u00c3\u00b3 a la Gran maquinaria roja en el primer juego de la serie, pero su gran noche como lo dice Peter Gammons en una de las entrevistas del documental, fue la del cuarto juego, cuando sin contar con lo mejor de su repertorio, fue capaz de mantener una ventaja de 5-4 en los \u00c3\u00baltimos 5 episodios del juego, en el quinto y noveno cap\u00c3\u00adtulos embas\u00c3\u00b3 dos corredores, a punta de voluntad y disposici\u00c3\u00b3n se llev\u00c3\u00b3 la victoria con 173 lanzamientos en la casa de los Rojos. Como lo dijo Gammons: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Aquella noche fue la de la voluntad de un hombre contra la grandeza de un equipo, y por esa vez pudo m\u00c3\u00a1s la voluntad\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n
Para m\u00c3\u00ad fue inevitable recordar el no-hitter que lanzara Tiant en el estadio Universitario de Caracas con los Tiburones de La Guaira ante los Leones del Caracas. El 14 de noviembre de 1971 Tiant venci\u00c3\u00b3 3-0. Antes de salir a lanzar el \u00c3\u00baltimo episodio el pitcher se volte\u00c3\u00b3 hacia la tribuna caraquista y se pas\u00c3\u00b3 el dedo por el cuello.<\/p>\n
Tiant se despide de sus familiares con los ojos inflamados de l\u00c3\u00a1grimas y una frase recurrente: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Pudo haber sido de otra forma. No ten\u00c3\u00ada porque pasar tanto tiempo sin verlos, sin compartir con ustedes\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n
Ya de regreso hacia el aeropuerto se detiene a fumar un habano en una plaza. Un hombre lo reconoce y empieza a preguntarle a los j\u00c3\u00b3venes qui\u00c3\u00a9n ha sido el pitcher cubano que ha ganado m\u00c3\u00a1s juegos en Grandes Ligas. Los muchachos dicen Livan Hern\u00c3\u00a1ndez, El Duque, Jos\u00c3\u00a9 Contreras. El hombre chasquea la lengua y ladea la cabeza, ah, ah. Luis Tiant se\u00c3\u00b1ores, Luis Tiant es el pitcher cubano con m\u00c3\u00a1s victorias en grandes ligas. Todav\u00c3\u00ada resonaban en el televisor los gritos de : \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Louie, Louie\u00e2\u20ac\u009d con que Fenway Park aupaba las actuaciones del pitcher cubano.<\/p>\n
English Translation<\/strong><\/p>\n On Sunday November 15th, 2009, I finally watched the documental film \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The lost son of Havana\u00e2\u20ac\u009d sponsored by ESPN to recreate the life of the Cuban pitcher Luis Tiant Jr. Those were really thrilling scenes when Tiant could be again at his country and meet again his relatives and friends. The images alone show an impressing landscape that squeeze tears retained by so much time. Tiant left Cuba on May, 1961. His father advised him not to come back because professional baseball was forbidden in the island. He only could get back in 2007. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Too much time\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, regretted the ballplayer among hugs and cut comments.<\/p>\n The documental mixes Tiant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s baseball career in the USA organized baseball since his debut in the Big Show in 1964 with the Cleveland Indians. He hurled a 4-hitter shutout against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. Something that hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t happened in the last 60 years. His brilliant season of 1968 when he led the American League in ERA with 1.60, he left a record of 21-9, 19 complete games, 9 shutouts, 4 in a row.<\/p>\n Tha man with the Fu Manch\u00c3\u00ba mustache walks on the sideways, remembers the places where he used to play as a child, greets and talks with friends in the middle of sights that go beyond Tiant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s absence.<\/p>\n After confronting some troubles with his throwing arm that made him left Cleveland and Minnesota, he started a progressive recovering with the Boston Red Sox. Since the 1971 season he began a change in his pitching mechanics because of the injury he had suffered in his arm. From being a powering pitcher he became a breaking balls and offspeed hurler. He taught himself to throw as his father, El Tiante.<\/p>\n One of the friends tells an episode from the times when Tiant trained in a street of Havana. The father came, watched him pitching, touched his arm. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to be a good pitcher. But not as good as me\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. The son touched the tip of his cap. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oh yes. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to be better than you\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n Although Tiant considers his debut before Whitey Ford and the Yankees in 1964 as his best day in baseball, his greatest moment arrived in 1975, when despite not having his best stats, he led the Red Sox to the World Series. Months before, senator McGovern among other topics in his agenda, gave Fidel Castro a letter written by the baseball commissioner representing Luis Tiant. Castro accepted that Tiant parents not only went to visit their son in Boston but to stay there all the time they wanted. Before a game of the regular season against the California Angels, the Red Sox asked Tiant for his father to throw the first ball of the contest the son was going to start. It was a scene proper of the movie \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Field of dreams\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Fenway Park boiled in a great ovation as the old man took off his suit coat to develop his wind-up to Carlton Fisk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mitt. Tiant hurled a shutout against the big red machine in the first game of the series. But his great night as said by Peter Gammons in one of the documental interviews, came in the fourth game, without his best deliveries he was able to keep the score 5-4 in the last five frames of the constest, he had two men on base in the fifth and ninth innings. With a lot of willingness and a great attitude Tiant took the win after making 173 deliveries to the plate. Gammons said: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That was the night of the willingness of a man against the greatness of a team, for once the willingness took the win\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n That game made me to remember the no-hitter Tiant hurled against the Caracas Lions in the Venezuelan Winter League. It was on November 14th, 1971. Tiant took the mound for the La Guaira Sharks in a Sunday morning and finished beating them 3-0. No hit no run. Before the last inning Tiant moved back to stands and passed his index finger through his throat in response to the Caracas Lions fans.<\/p>\n Tiant says good bye to his relatives with his eyes full of tears and a revolving statement: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It could, it should have been different. It was very hard for me to wait so long to see you again, to share my life with you again\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n Going back to the airport, Tiant stops by a square in downtown to smoke a cigar. A man recognizes him and starts to ask to the young guys who has been the Cuban pitcher that has won more games in MLB. The guys say Livan Hern\u00c3\u00a1ndez, El Duque, Jos\u00c3\u00a9 Contreras. The man moves his head. Luis Tiant gentlemen. Luis Tiant is the Cuban pitcher wit more wins in MLB. The Fenway Park chants of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Louie, Louie\u00e2\u20ac\u009d still sound in the tv set through the documental film.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750","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=1750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}