14ymedio, Havana, 14 June 2022 — The loss of outfielder Roidel Martínez was a foregone conclusion after he was excluded from the Under-23 team participating in the World Championship that takes place in Aguascalientes (Mexico). The player, according to journalist Francys Romero, “made his request this Monday in the province of Pinar del Río.”
As published by the communicator in Baseball FR!, the athlete went in the morning to the headquarters of the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (Inder) and the Provincial Commission “with his discharge letter drawn up.” And although there were managers who tried to dissuade him, his departure, he let them know, “was already decided.”
Through his social networks, the man from Pinar del Río shared a video on June 7 in which he exposed his annoyance to the journalist Osbel Benítez Polo for being removed from the Under-23 national team with no more argument than “we have seen, we have spoken and you cannot be on the team,” the coaches told him.
In the same video he explains that, at the end of the training, the coaches called him to inform him. The athlete told them that he accepted the determination, but that they should detail the reasons why he was not included. “It’s that you can’t be, you can’t be, we decided that you can’t be.”
The place of Martínez, who had had two training sessions, was taken by the Granma player, Francisco Venecia. “Nobody told me that I couldn’t be here because I did something wrong or because such a thing is said,” explained the player. “If you ask me now, I’ll tell you that I want to ask to leave and not play more ball any more,” he said.
In the 61 National Series, the left-handed batter has an offensive line with 76 hits, 11 doubles, a triple and four home runs. According to Francys Romero, “none of the outfielders of the team that competes in Aguascalientes had a better performance than the one from Pinar del Río.”
Martínez’s exclusion recalled that experienced by Luis Enrique González and Darlin Jíménez, who were “erased” at the last minute from the list of the U-23 team that traveled to Mexico in 2021 for the World Championship held in the state of Sonora. In this event, the escape of 12 athletes was recorded, half of the team led by Eriel Sánchez.
“Days later, both González and Jímenez requested their discharges, which they received in a fairly rapid time, between 1 and 3 weeks,” Romero recalled.
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