Your mission: to win

Oscar Sánchez Serra

"MY first instinct was to come back here. Imagine, we heard that they had bombed the airports. I immediately thought about the Rancho Boyeros one – I live now, and then, right beside the runway – what might have happened to my family, I asked myself."

"I remember it just as he’s saying, there was no other sentiment other than to get here one way or another, to exchange our bats for guns. But they called us together in the hotel, and compañero Matías Flores, one of the delegation leaders, read us a message from the country’s leadership saying, ‘Militias to arms, students to classes, workers to work, baseball players to baseball. Your mission there is to win.’"

Those were the responses of Pedro Chávez and Jorge Trigoura when we asked them to recall their first impressions after hearing, right in the middle of the world baseball championship in April 1961, that Cuba was being attacked by yankee imperialism.

History had it that the grandeur of a people was demonstrated by two events: the first major defeat of imperialism in Latin America on the sands of Playa Girón (Bay of Pigs), and in Costa Rica, sports gave the Revolution its first world title.

CUBA: HOME TEAM

"That victory in the Ciénaga de Zapata and our triumph in Costa Rica are the greatest things that have happened to me in my life as a revolutionary. What Jorge remembers is still very vivid in my mind, because we went there with the mentality to win, but when they gave us that mission, it was as if they’d put dynamite in our bats," recounts Chávez, with a gleam in his eyes that he couldn’t hide.

"See what we did in the championship – in just nine games – 128 runs, 14 for each game, and we only allowed 11. In the draws to decide the home team, the opposing sides gave us that privilege. When we asked why they were doing that, they replied, ‘So that you bat one less inning and don’t notch up so many runs,’" Trigoura continues.

Chávez recalls, "Those were very tense days, we went out to play under a lot of pressure. They told us that the Revolution had been defeated, that Fidel had been shot, that Raúl had been taken prisoner. Placards appeared outside our hotel, insulting us; as well as people telling us to betray our country. However, we went out onto the field every day and, as I was telling you, our only concern was to make each appearance better in order to fulfill the mission given to us."

TO HELL WITH THE PALM TREE LOT

"’You’re number 7, see the palm tree to the right of the window in your room. You keep playing, we’re going to hang you from it right there,’ said a note left for me in the hotel. When my compañeros came up to me, I said, don’t worry, we have one sole mission, so to hell with the palm tree lot," narrates Trigoura, with laughter now... "But, yes, things got ugly there."

But while they didn’t hang him, he was pulled out of the game, because the Cuban team’s third baseman was struck on the head by a ball and was unable to continue playing. "A tremendous whack, it was a Mexican pitcher, I can’t even remember his name now. I asked to go on playing, and I did, but I couldn’t stand up, I was totally dizzy, much as I wanted to go on, I had to go to the bench. Everyone knows that Chávez was one of the one of the best hitters in Cuban baseball, but Gago – he says to his friend with a smile – if I hadn’t have been hit, I’d have reached you in homeruns."

"Several of us baseball players who had the privilege not only of winning the first revolutionary sports title, but also of socialist sports, are still here sharing all their knowledge. Fortunately, what we’re telling you, you could hear equally from Alfredo Street, who won three of the nine clashes, Urbano González, Tony González, Raúl Cachirulo Díaz," Chávez comments.

He also affirmed that the day they heard about the invasion, the deceased pitcher Rolando Pastor, "stood there in front of us and exclaimed that nobody has ever written anything about cowards, so we’re gonna go out like the brave Cubans we are, so that the true history is written." The lefthander himself opened the game on April 20, when the players already knew about the heroic victory. He pitched to Costa Rica, allowing just three hits. Chávez and Trigoura also recalled José Miguel Pineda, another lefthander, now dead, an immense figure on the mound in that championship and well known to fans afterwards for his triumphs as director of the Pinar del Río teams in National Series.

"I believe that if we’re talking about that world championship, it is only just that we remember to talk to you about Eladio Sauquet, he was a worker on the Granma newspaper and I believe that such a noble, person, such a good baseball player and such a revolutionary deserves this tribute, even if it is just a simple mention," Chávez affirms.

WE HAVE THE SAME MISSION TODAY

They didn’t talk about their performances in that world championship, maybe because 50 years have passed since then or maybe out of modesty. But history records that Chávez played in the nine games, 36 times at bat, 19 runs, the same number of hits (2 doubles and five homeruns), 17 runs batted in and an astronomical 528 average. Despite being hit on the head, Trigoura played in six of the games, 22 times at bat, 11 runs, 11 hits (one double and four homeruns), 12 runs batted in and a .500 average.

"I read in the newspaper that young people are to be the principal leaders of the parade for the 50th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs victory and the socialist nature of the Revolution. It couldn’t be any other way. They have the same mission today as were given 50 years ago and I am sure that they will win as well, like the young Martí, Mella, like Fidel and Raúl are, all of the Moncada youth, those of Playa Girón. And they can count on us, because with more than 70 years behind one, if one is revolutionary, one is always young," Chávez affirms… And Trigoura exclaimed, "I say to our enemies what I said to that palm tree lot in Costa Rica."

http://www.granma.cu/ingles/cuba-i/14abril-Your%20mission.html