Gem of a player who many never saw
Linares was ‘a guy scouts drool over when they see him for the first time’
CARY, N.C. — All four teams in the Americas Baseball Festival were in action at the same time during the tournament’s final day on Wednesday.
So, who was the best prospect on the diamonds at the USA National Training Center’s Coleman Field?
Lefty A.J. Puk of the Florida Gators of the USA collegians?
Right-hander Jake Thompson of the USA Pan Am team?
Right-hander Yander Morales of Cuba’s national team?
Or left fielder Tyler O’Neill of Team Canada?
While Puk headed off to summer ball, Thompson, Morales, O’Neill and all of their teammates shared a 737 Miami Air charter to Toronto for the start of the Pan Am Games on Saturday night in Ajax, Ont.. The best prospect? Who knows? Yet, we’ll wager a Diet Coke on the two players who had the best careers.
Two 48-year-olds.
Canadian coach Larry Walker — winner of two National League batting titles, and an MVP, whose career numbers compare to Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio’s according to baseball-reference.com, would be No. 1.
And No. 2 would be Omar Linares, a coach with Cuba.
For a decade beginning in the late 1980s Linares was regarded as the best player not in the majors.
The starting third baseman on Cuba’s World Cup championship teams in 1986, ’88, ’90, ’94, ’98 and 2001, Linares also won Olympic gold in 1992 and ’96, playing 20 years in all.
He was so good that both the Montreal Expos and the Toronto Blue Jays wanted to sign him in the early 1990s — thanks to Canada’s strong relations with Cuba. At the time, a Cuban could not work in the U.S., but both the Jays and Expos were fine with Linares playing home games only.
“That was a long time ago, I don’t remember all the details, but the teams could not come to an agreement with our government,” said Linares on Wednesday with the aid of an interpreter.
At 14, Linares entered the international scene playing second base against 18-year-olds as Cuba won the 1982 World Juniors in Barquismeto, Venezuela.
He was at Kindersley, Sask., in 1984 when Cuba won the juniors, in Edmonton to win the 1985 Intercontinental Cup, Edmonton again in ’95 for the Atlanta Olympics qualifier (Cuba made it, as did Nicaragua, whose late rally against Eric Gagne beat Canada) and Winnipeg in ’99 for the Pan Am Games, where he hit a three-run homer in the bronze- medal game as Cuba beat Canada 3-2.
After Cuba played Canada in a tune up game on Wednesday, Linares was headed back to Havana. He won’t be making the visit to Toronto.
We first met Linares in the spring of 1993 poolside in Camaguey, Cuba, during an assignment to write about baseball’s final frontier.
Asked then about the possibility of signing with the Jays, Linares said: “All I know is that the Toronto team is the professional champion of the world and Cuba is the amateur champion of the Olympics.”
The best major-leaguers made between $5 million and $6 million a year in 1993. Linares made 209 Cuban pesos a month. A peso was worth 48 cents.
After our talk at the Hotel Camaguey pool deck, with interpreter Alina Rodriguez translating to English, press secretary Olga Lopez said in Spanish: “Omar said he would like to dedicate a home run to us tonight.”
Linares shook his head: “No, no, no, I didn’t say that.”
After Linares and his Occidentales Lions beat the Centralles Wasps 11-8 at the Estadio Candido Gonzalez in the first game of the doubleheader, Lopez took us onto the field.
She chided Linares about not delivering the home run she had promised. “Still nine innings left,” he said. Centralles was up 4-0 in the sixth of the nightcap when Linares connected with his aluminum Easton Slugger. The ball cleared the fence, travelling roughly 390 feet.
Crossing home plate Linares spotted the three of us sitting in the sunken seats and pointed in our direction. He had delivered.
I’m not really sure how many home runs I have seen since Tom Grieve connected for the New York Mets opening day 1978 at Olympic Stadium, yet only one player has ever crossed the plate and pointed at me.
We asked Omar Minaya, then of the Texas Rangers, how he would describe Linares.
“Think George Bell’s 1987 MVP year,” Minaya said. “He’s that kind of player with the bat, except instead of being an outfielder he’s at third. And he fields and steal bases.
“He’s a guy scouts drool over when they see him for the first time. He is a franchise player.”
The former franchise player was working the radar gun on Wednesday, wearing the only colours he has ever worn: Red, blue and white.
Linares had the second best career behind Walker of any player on the four teams. People saw Walker play. It’s a shame more didn’t get to enjoy Linares.