Oldest Living Former Big Leaguer, Now 101, Recalls Baseball Past
Decades ago, as an up-and-coming baseball player for the Washington Senators,
Conrado Marrero stared down Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams, a feeling he says
he still vividly remembers.
Those days are long gone. Yet from his non-descript Havana apartment,
Marrero, after turning 101 and becoming the oldest living former big leaguer,
proudly reminisced about the five years he spent with the Senators.
"Putting on that uniform always made me feel bigger, more powerful," said
Marrero, who in his playing days was listed as 5 feet 5 inches tall and 158
pounds. His memory often fails him, and his voice sometimes trails off in
mid-thought, but Marrero grows animated when the subject turns to his sport,
and he wraps his long wrinkled fingers around a baseball to demonstrate his
grip.
Marrero has been confined to a wheelchair since fracturing his hip last year,
is hard of hearing and can no longer see. But the man once known as "The
Peasant of Laberinto," after the central Cuban farm where he grew up, still
indulges in cigars, and listens avidly to Cuban baseball on the radio.
Not bad for a man who is a year older than Boston's iconic Fenway Park, which
celebrated its centenary earlier this month.
Marrero, who was known in his major league days as Connie, raises his voice
in excitement when he recalls going against pitchers like Allie Reynolds of
the Yankees or Early Wynn, who in those days played for mighty Cleveland.
Beating the Yankees, he says, was the sweetest feeling in the world.
"They were strong," he said. "They were the best. Each batter was a struggle."
Marrero had less good things to say about his own team, the lowly Senators,
who he called "lazy" and error prone. Still, he said it was a thrill to suit
up every day.
He recalls meeting the retired Babe Ruth once in Miami, befriending Connie
Mack, and sharing an elevator with Dwight Eisenhower in Washington.
As for the great hitters of his day, Marrero insists he was afraid of no one,
although he admits that Williams usually got the better of him.
"One day Williams got two home runs off me, and afterward he came up to me
and said 'Sorry, it was my day today," Marrero recalled. "I responded, 'Ted,
every day is your day.'"
Marrero doesn't complain about money, but his circumstances are exceedingly
modest compared with today's multimillion-dollar players. The stairwell up to
his second floor apartment has no lighting, and his living room is empty save
for two sagging sofas and a rocking chair.
Marrero is eligible to receive a $20,000 payout granted him under a 2011
agreement between Major League Baseball and the players' association to
extend financial help to big leaguers who played between 1947 and 1979, and
did not otherwise qualify for a pension. But the money has been held up for
months due to the 50-year U.S. economic embargo, which makes financial
transactions between the United States and Cuba extremely complicated.
Steve Rogers, a former Expos pitcher who is now an official at the Major
League Baseball Players Association, told The Associated Press the payment to
Marrero has been approved by the U.S. Treasury Department, which regulates
trade to sanctioned countries like Cuba, but logistical problems have slowed
up actually turning it over.
"They are working diligently to try to get the money to him ... but it is
just a question of logistics, of physically getting the money there," he
said. "We have all taken this project very personally because he is the
oldest living ballplayer, and because of that he is very special. With his
101st birthday, that puts an exclamation mark on the urgency."
Rogers said he did not have details of what was holding up the payment, but
added that he was confident a solution is near. "It's imminent," he said.
Marrero's grandson, Rogelio Marrero, says the problem is that direct bank
transfers to Cuba are impossible, and the players' association does not allow
the money to go through an intermediary. But he, too, expresses hope the
issue will be resolved soon.
Marrero, who was born in the small town of Sagua la Grande in the central
Cuban province of Villa Clara, was already old when he made it to the big
leagues as a 39-year-old rookie in 1950 following a standout career in Cuba.
And he wasn't your typical big leaguer either. Because of his size, he relied
on control, guile and a bag full of junk pitches — curves, sliders,
knuckleballs and other off-speed stuff.
He compiled a 39-40 record and a 3.67 ERA before being cut ahead of the 1955
season. Marrero was named to the 1951 All-Star team but didn't see action. As
a Senator, he played alongside Mickey Vernon and Eddie Yost, yet his teams
only once finished with a winning record.
After his big league days were over, Marrero returned to the Cuban minor
leagues, ending his career with the Havana Sugar Kings in 1957. Two years
later, Fidel Castro's rebels swept into power. Unlike many former big
leaguers in Cuba, Marrero chose to stay, becoming a coach and roving
instructor, working to develop and coach Cuban players well into his 80s.
Marrero says he doesn't follow the majors much anymore, although he did know
that 49-year-old Jamie Moyer recently became the oldest pitcher to win a
game. His grandson occasionally shares with him the exploits of A's slugger
Yoenis Cespedes, who defected from Cuba last year, joining a long list of
Cuban standouts that include Kendrys Morales of the Angels and Aroldis
Chapman of the Reds.
Marrero listens to nearly every broadcast of Cuba's playoffs on the radio,
and he excitedly talks up youngsters he thinks have potential. "Be careful
with Sancti Spiritus," he said, saying they have a great team.
Rogers said it was somehow appropriate that the world's oldest ballplayer was
a Cuban, given the island's contribution to America's national pastime.
"If ever you could pinpoint a common denominator, it's baseball. You could
take all of the other issues out there that separate Cuba and the United
States, but baseball is the common denominator, and having the oldest
ballplayer being a Cuban and someone living in Cuba is fitting,"
Marrero, who lost his wife about 20 years ago, has four children and many
more grandchildren and great grandchildren split between Cuba and the United
States. He says he's not sure how he lived so long, but he did offer one
secret.
"I never had hatred for anyone," he says. "I treated everyone equally."
Based on reporting by The Associated Press.
Read more:
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2012/04/26/oldest-living-former-big-leaguer-now-101-recalls-baseball-past/#ixzz1tCO1pMvI