With Cabrera, Renteria, Colombia Can't Lose
Two-thirds of South American country's major-league players star in World Series
Stephanie Myles, The Gazette
October 26, 2004
If we had another homegrown hero of the stature of Eric Gagne in
the major
leagues, and he and Gagne were facing off in the World Series, you'd
get a sense
of what it's like in Colombia this week for shortstops Orlando Cabrera
and Edgar
Renteria.
"It's great, especially in the north part of the country.
Everything stops at
7 o'clock just to watch the game. It's unbelievable for us. We're
getting a lot
of recognition, and they see me play almost every day now," Cabrera
said. "They
never saw me play every day with the Expos, so it was kind of big every
time we
played the Cardinals when I was in Montreal. And now we're in the World
Series -
two players playing every day, not on the bench, and we're both really
important
to our teams."
Cabrera's mother, Josefina Ramirez, and Renteria's mother,
Visitacion Erazo,
are on hand for the series. And the national television network in
Colombia and
the various radio networks are all airing the games.
The magnitude can't be underplayed. There are only three
Colombians in the
majors and the other is Cabrera's older brother, Jolbert. In all of
baseball
history, there have been only seven, including the first-ever from all
of Latin America, Luis Castro, in 1902. He was a shortstop. So was Orlando
Ramirez, who
played for the Angels from 1974-79. So was Jackie Gutierrez, who played
for
three teams from 1983-88.
Then came Renteria, who made his major-league debut at age 20 in
1996, and
produced the World Series-winning hit for the Florida Marlins the
following
year.
Since Cabrera, whose debut came in 1997, there has been only one
other: a
catcher, Yamid Haad, who had one at-bat in 1999 and plays for the San Diego
Padres' Triple-A affiliate.
It's a small list. And except for Renteria, who was born in
Barranquilla,
about 100 km up the northern coast, all have come from Cabrera's
hometown of
Cartagena.
"I was in the Arizona Fall League then. But it was big, being in
the World
Series, the way he was playing,' Cabrera said of Renteria.
"The same thing happened to me that he is living now," Renteria
said. "I'm
very proud that both of us are here."
It's been a busy sports week in Cabrera's homeland. F1 driver
Juan Pablo
Montoya won his first race of the season two days ago in Brazil. And
the
Colombian baseball team is preparing to play in World Cup qualifying.
In the southern part of the country, where soccer rules and
baseball is as
much a mystery as hockey in Nashville, they're getting a steady diet of
their
two shortstops on television.
"The people down south don't know anything about baseball. But
they have it
on TV live. There's a guy analyzing it who has to explain every single
thing,"
Cabrera said.
When last we left Cabrera after the dramatic Game 7 victory over
the Yankees,
he had his arm around Red Sox GM Theo Epstein. He was about to
sweet-talk him
into letting a Colombian radio reporter, a friend of Cabrera's, travel
with the
team.
He clearly was persuasive. "Once he sat in the front of our bus,
we haven't
lost since. So he's going to St. Louis on our plane," Cabrera said
Sunday.
"Renteria saw him and said: 'Okay, I know whose side you're on now.' "
The reporter is busy: he's on TV, on the radio, he's writing,
feeding the
appetite back home for news. And he clearly hasn't burned any bridges.
He'll be
staying with Renteria in St. Louis.
Renteria remains the better-known and more popular of the two.
But Cabrera
said the Red Sox were popular back home long before he was traded
there. Since
then, all Red Sox games have been shown at home, giving him more
exposure.
Still, in a survey commissioned by national radio network RCN of
600 people
in Colombia's five biggest cities, 77.1 per cent said they'd prefer to
see
Renteria and the Cards win. Cabrera got 17.5 per cent of the vote.
Either way, Colombia wins.
Back to 2004 Articles Page