Cubans ready to play
Fabulous national team members will play for Panthers this season
KITCHENER — With his handful of English words and box of toothpicks, Yonder Martinez is eager to get on the mound at Jack Couch Park and start pitching.
Martinez, a deceptive righthander who’s a Team Cuba veteran, has been around the world as a pitcher — from the Olympics to the World Baseball Classic to the Pan Am Games.
On Sunday afternoon, the 39year-old hurler for Matanzas of the Cuban National Series is expected to make his Intercounty Baseball League debut at home against the Hamilton Cardinals.
Martinez and three countrymen — Noelvis Entenza, Yorbis Borroto and Miguel Lahera — arrived this week under a unique deal that allows them to play in Canada on loan from their Cuban teams. Entenza, back for a third season in Kitchener, was expected to pitch in London Friday night.
From “fastball” to “curveball” to “slider,” Martinez knows enough English to communicate with his new teammates, and is eager to test himself in a new league. He’s even brought his own toothpicks, something he likes to chew on while he pitches.
“It was just something that I used to do. And then I just became recognized as the guy with the toothpick,” said Martinez, through translator Veronica Jimenez Munoz. “I think it helps me focus on the game.”
Like Martinez, Lahera will also be making his Intercounty debut this weekend. The Panthers’ director Mike Boehmer, who orchestrated the deal to bring the import players north, calls the big righty the “Andrew Miller of Cuba.”
Lahera, who has a 3.53 earned run average in 15 seasons in the top Cuban league, said he’s happy pitching as a starter or a reliever.
“I’ll do my job, whatever I’m assigned to do,” Lahera said, in Spanish. “I just want to represent my country as best I can.”
Coming to Canada is also a chance to keep in mid-season shape ahead an upcoming tournament with Team Cuba that may take him away from the IBL for three weeks in July.
Borroto, meanwhile, is just glad he doesn’t have to face his fellow Cubans as an opponent for a few months.
Borroto, who had a standout season last year at shortstop for the Panthers, is excited to play a more creative style of baseball under new manager Luke Baker — including tactics like stealing bases, bunting and using hit-andrun plays.
“In Cuba, that’s the way we play. We play with tactics, with strategy, both defensive and offensive,” he said. “That’s the
way you win games, scoring one run at a time.”
Entenza, a workhorse starter for the Panthers the past two seasons, said he’s ready to get started — despite a battle with the Zika virus that left him pitching in Cuba with a high fever.
The big right-hander helped lead his home team, the Havana Industrialies, to the semifinals and was selected as an all-star in the Cuban League.
Lahera and Martinez are two of the top veteran pitchers in Cuba, he said, and the Panthers are lucky to have them here for the summer.
“Both are very intelligent pitchers, with a lot of miles run,” Entenza said.
“They’re two of the best pitchers in Cuba. I think they’ll adjust very well here.”
The Panthers new skipper has little time to get his new imports acclimatized to Canada.
With the season already started, Baker needs the Cubans’ help right away. They’ll have to work their way through any language barriers on the fly.
“A lot of the time we’re just talking baseball, so it’s easier to understand that language. It’s kind of universal,” he said. “It might be a bit of a learning curve, but we’ll make it happen.”
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