Randy Arozarena celebrates during a game with Mexico in the World Baseball Classic.CHRIS CODUTO (Getty Images via AFP)
Mexico lost the opportunity to fight for the World Baseball Classic title, but gained a new star of the sport.
Randy Arozarena (Pinar del Río, 28 years old) was destined to be another great figure of Cuban baseball and, in the worst case, to be a soccer player.
The young baseball player played in the Cuban children's baseball teams, although he did not feel comfortable with the living conditions on the island.
In 2015, Arozarena boarded a rudimentary barge to search for the not-so-famous American dream.
In 2022, almost 178,000 Cubans arrived in the US, according to the Center for Democracy in the Americas.
The baseball player preferred to go to Mexico, where part of his family already lived in Yucatan.
"Mexico received me like a son," he recounted a few days ago.
Randy Arozarena was clear that, in his new beginning, he had to insist on baseball.
He started playing in a local league until he caught the attention of the Mexican Pacific League teams.
The Tijuana Bulls, at the other end of the country, took an interest in him and signed him to their youth development academy.
He played for the Toritos de Tecate until reaching a place in Tijuana's main team in 2016. Later, the Mayos de Navojoa (in Sonora) signed him.
There he began to make a tradition of wearing leather boots during warm-ups.
That gave him luck to connect very strong
home runs
during his games.
That cabal took her in the move to the Cardinals in St. Louis.
The hiring of Arozarena in Major League Baseball meant a breakthrough point in his career.
The American team paid more than a million dollars for the Mexican.
First they sent him to the minor league team, they gave him permission to play again in Navojoa and in 2019 he made his debut in the star team.
At the beginning of 2020, the Cardinals traded the baseball player and sent him to the Tampa Bay Rays.
The power of his arm when hitting helped his team reach the World Series against the Dodgers, which they lost.
Despite that, Arozarena was named the most valuable player in the American League finals.
His wish was to play for the country that sheltered him.
Before the Tokyo Olympics took place in 2021, he asked to play for Mexico, although he did not have a naturalization card in those days.
The perfect window to sneak in she saw as the World Baseball Classic approached this year.
So she began to send messages on her social networks to help her contact President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to give her nationality.
It was a perfect hook for a president who was fond of the sport of mittens.
The request reached a morning conference by the Mexican president and he agreed to review his case with the immigration authorities.
It was in April 2022 when Arozarena boasted on his social networks that he had already received the documents that accredited him as Mexican.
The Mexican ninth, as the team is known, faced the World Baseball Classic with a selection of players who played in the Major Leagues, including Randy Arozarena.
The group began with difficulties when losing against Colombia.
They then recovered by knocking out the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom in the first round.
In the quarterfinals they beat Puerto Rico, a powerful country in baseball, in a match that had a Mexican comeback that raised the illusions of the Mexicans to heaven.
Never before in history had El Tri reached the semifinal round.
One of the great factors to nullify the rivals was Arozarena.
"I have always loved the Mexican fans, they yell a lot, but when they yell at you with love it feels beautiful," the baseball player told AS Mexico during the tournament.
In the run-up to the final, Mexico lost to Japan at the last breath.
Not even Randy Arozarena's best exhibition could accomplish the feat of fighting for the world championship.
Despite losing, the fans wrapped up their own.
“Our countryman Arozarena is a phenomenon, he hits, he fields, he runs the bases well, he has pepper.
He is also humble, he is not arrogant, he attends to people.
He spent all his time giving autographs, a very good person, he proved to be a gentleman, ”López Obrador congratulated after the game.
On social networks there was a wave of compliments, among other images that showed him as a saint.
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