14ymedio/Swing Completo, Havana, 1 October 2024 — Yoisnel Camejo, a member of the Matanzas team, left the club’s training in Spain. The player, according to the Cuba Grand Slam Facebook page, “decided to stay on Spanish soil” after the failure and elimination of the team in the Catalan Cup.
It will be difficult for the Matanzas team to participate again in an international event. Camejo “took advantage of the opportunity and embarked on a new path through Spain although it may not be linked to baseball,” said Pelota Cubana journalist Miguel Rodríguez.
Camejo did not show up with the rest of his teammates to board the 6:00 a.m. flight from Spain that was returning the team to the Island, thereby “breaking any link with the Cuban athletic movement.” The athlete chose to “start a new process in his life,” the magazine Swing Completo added.
During the tournament, in which Matanzas recorded two defeats and one victory, Camejo participated in two games and struck out in one of them. The athlete participated in six National Series with the Cocodrilos team. In 50 games he had 82 times at bat, 31 hits, two doubles, five triples, a couple of home runs and 18 assisted runs.
The Catalan Cup confirmed that Cuban baseball “is bogged down and has lost the gift of victory,” said Por la Goma after Matanzas’ failure. The team’s result showed the lack of foresight on the part of the Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB) in the processing of visas for the players and the team’s lack of preparation.
Pelota Cubana reported this Monday that in addition to the fact that the players of Matanzas traveled without training, they also did so “without a complete team and, what is more alarming, without bats.”
The club had to “borrow” the bats. “How can such an improvisation be explained in an international competition? The answer is simple: the Cuban player, like the rest of the citizens on the Island, has been forced to survive instead of fully dedicating himself to his profession,” stressed the same specialized media.
Cuban baseball players seem more concerned about what they can take back home, the same specialized media highlighted. The reason many players did not carry bats is because “if they load down their luggage with bats, the weight they can bring back is much lower,” the publication pointed out, referring to the weight of luggage allowed by the airlines.
This Monday, the arrival in the United States of baseball player Óscar Valdés, who was absent from the national team’s lineup for the Premier 12, was also confirmed. So far it is unknown if there is interest from a major league club in the player from Industriales.
In his career in the National Series and the Elite League, Valdés has a batting average of .282 with 99 doubles, 11 triples, 32 home runs, 303 RBI runs and 304 scored.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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