CONTRERAS NOW PITCHING ADVICE TO YOUNGSTERS
Former White Sox player helps coach Little League ballplayers in Florida
Bending on one knee, Jose Contreras held out what resembled a plastic foam flotation device.
He was working with pitcher Lazaro Rodriguez, 10, whose job was to take a towel he held in his glove, go through his pitching motion, bend his back, follow through, reach out and snap the towel.
Rodriguez made a popping sound after hitting the device. Combined with showing proper mechanics, Contreras gave him a gap- toothed smile from ear to ear.
For Contreras, life is good. After 28 years as a professional pitcher, he’s back in baseball, working with 8- to 12- yearold Little Leaguers. He has been volunteering as a de facto pitching coach for the Fort Myers American Little League at Sam Fleishman Sports Complex this spring.
Son Joseph, 9, is playing the game. Contreras couldn’t be happier.
“I want to thank the coaches and the
commissioner of the league for the opportunity,” he said through interpreter Laz Rodriguez, Lazaro’s father.
BELOVED TO DISOWNED
Contreras, who moved to Alva in 2008, has had quite the baseball journey.
Considered the best Cuban player ever, he led his country to gold medals in a number of world tournaments, including the 1996 Olympics.
Contreras defected at 30 while pitching for the Cuban national team during the Americas Series in Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico. Two months after his defection in 2002, the New York Yankees signed him to a four- year contract.
His decision earned him millions. He became a World Series champion in 2005 with the Chicago White Sox. Between 2005 and 2006, he became the hottest pitcher in Major League Baseball.
But there were consequences. He went from being beloved to disowned in his native country.
“No, I wasn’t scared, but I was leaving my entire family behind,” he said. “My father was 82 and died a year ( after he left). I saw my mom 10 years later, my brothers 13 years later, when Cuba allowed me to go back.”
The Yankees traded Contreras to the White Sox in 2004. In 2005, Contreras pitched Game 1 of the American League Division Series, Game 1 of the American League Championship Series and Game 1 of the World Series. However, White Sox games were banned from Cuban television and could be seen only with illegal television satellites.
President Fidel Castro even banned people from mentioning Jose Contreras’ name, according to World Series commentators.
“I found out later my brother had a battery- operated radio and went into the middle of a jungle to listen to the game with 60 other people,” Contreras said. “If the government found out what they were doing, they’d be arrested. When somebody sneezed, he was told to go somewhere else because they didn’t need somebody finding them.”
Facing Roger Clemens in Game 1 of the World Series, Contreras led the White Sox to a 5- 3 win against theHouston Astros. Chicago went on to sweep the series, its first baseball world championship in 88 years.
As he recalled Game 1, Contreras pointed to his arm, which had goose bumps. “Clemens wasmy hero,” he said. In 11 major league seasons, Contreras went 78- 67 with a 4.57 ERA. After signingminor league contracts with the Boston Red Sox and Texas Rangers in 2013 and 2014, he played in Taiwan andMexico the last two years.
He says the manager he connected with best was Ozzie Guillen, who wanted to keep him when the White Sox considered trading him before the 2005 AllStar break.
“In one game, he came out, and I said, ‘ What’s going on?’ ” Contreras recalled. “He said, ‘ I just wanted to see your ugly face.’ He liked to joke around. He was serious, but he did it with a smile on his face.
“I saw him as a father figure. I got a lot of confidence from him, the little things he’d say and do.
“( Yankees manager) Joe Torre was unbelievable. With all due respect to Joe Torre, one of the greatest managers, the way Ozzie went about things. … He could read me well.”
PITCHING WHISPERER
When Contreras went to the mound and toed the rubber, he felt, “This is my house, my territory, my domain.”
That’s the same thing he tells the young pitchers he works with.
There’s more. He compares pitching to dancing where there’s rhythm and flow and fluidity.
He tells them they pitch with their arms and brains but also with their hearts.
“He says, ‘ You gotta feel it and you gotta live it,’ ” Rodriguez said. “He tells them, ‘ If you like the game of baseball, do it, but if you don’t like it, don’t do it. You won’tmake it around the corner.’ ”
Rodriguez said if a player wants to get better, Contreras will go out of his way to help.
“This is from me,” Rodriguez said. “If you were to look at kids he’s worked with three months ago to today, you would think they’re not the same kid.
“He’s very patient teaching mechanics. He teaches a nice- and- relaxed manner. They don’t overthrow. They rarely throw a wild pitch.
“And he’s taught kids so well, if they make a mistake and throw a bad pitch, they can tell him why they threw a bad pitch.”
In the Fort Myers American Little League, Contreras has become the pitching whisperer. He’s not only working with the pitchers on the Little League Pirates’ minor AAA and major league teams but also any child who seeks his aid.
“I’m looking for a job,” he said with a laugh.
It’s a loud whisper. Contreras can’t contain his volume — or his emotion — when seeing his tips translate to success.
“We didn’t automatically assume he’d want to jump right in,” said Jonathan Brooke, the Pirates manager. “We waited a while, then after a month, we approached him and asked if he’d be interested.
“He’s just a good guy who wants to help.”
Donny Overholser, the Fort Myers American Little League president, introduced himself to Contreras, who then turned to his wife and mother, pointed and said, “El Presidente.”
“He comes off as being very humble,” Overholser said. “Just the nicest guy you’d want to meet.”
Contreras has enjoyed his experience so much he has invited the Pirates players over to his house for an end- of- theyear pool party.
After his pro pitching career ended, Contreras didn’t have a spring training this year. Isabel Contreras, his wife, said he has kept busy working out and planting yucca, tomatoes and herbs in his garden so the coaching has been good for him.
“Working with the kids, he really enjoys this,” she said. “It’s brand- new, very fresh.”
Contreras has other opportunities in baseball but isn’t quite sure what he wants to do.
“I had 28 great years,” he said. “Fourteen in Cuba and 14 here.”