43 THROWING 93
’ 05 Series champ hitting 93 mph, wants to pitch until his arm falls off
TUCSON, Ariz. — The Bronze Titan points both thumbs over his shoulders and toward the back of his red and black jersey. Maybe he’s joking, but he says he might pitch another nine years, until his age matches the 52 on his back.
That he’s pitching at 43— much less throwing 93 mph after leading the Mexican League in strikeouts last year— is amazing enough.
Jose Contreras, the former White Sox All- Star and World Series champion, is a grandfather of two. His teammates on the Tijuana Toros are young enough to be his kids.
Contreras made $ 67.5 million in the major leagues and has a piece of property in Chicago on which he’ll build a home when he’s done playing. But that won’t happen until his arm falls off— and maybe not even then.
“If it falls and goes to the ground, I’ll kick it,” he said last week through a translator. “And if I can throw strikes, I’ll keep going.”
Contreras vows he’ll return to the big leagues, even though he hasn’t thrown more than 14 innings in a season since 2010. He went to spring training with the Texas Rangers last season but was cut in mid-March.
Rather than go to the minors, he joined the Mexican League, at the suggestion of former All- Star Joakim Soria.
Contreras lives across the border in Chula Vista, Calif., and is thrilled that his 6- year- old son — only two years older than his oldest grandson— can watch him play.
He was good last year, too, going 10- 3 a 3.49 ERA.
“He can still bring it,” Toros manager Eddie Diaz said.
Alongside three other Mexican League teams, the Toros have spent the month training at Kino Sports Complex, which the White Sox left for Camelback Ranch in 2009. The Toros’ clubhouse belonged to the Diamondbacks; the White Sox’ old facility is across the parking lot, a cut- off man away.
Contreras was thrilled to return to his old spring home.
“I had the best years of my career here with the White Sox,” he said.
On the 2005World Series championship team — which will hold a 10- year reunion this season — Contreras set career highs with 15 wins, 32 starts and 204⅔ innings pitched.
He still follows the team. This offseason, he spent time with a fellow Cuban defector: Sox first baseman Jose Abreu, the American League Rookie of the Year.
Contreras, a former Olympic gold medalist and threetime Cuban Male Athlete of the Year, knew Abreu was talented when he first saw him play for the national team.
“When the White Sox got him for $ 68 million, there was a lot of people saying, ‘ Oh, that’s too much,’ ” Contreras said. “I said, ‘ No, he’s worth that.’ “And then when he started hitting, that was a steal, that $ 68 million.”
Despite earning the Bronze Titan nickname from former Cuban president Fidel Castro, Contreras said he made 75 cents a month and never had a bank account in Cuba.
In 2002, he walked out of a Mexican hotel while traveling with the national team and didn’t return to his home country for another 11 years.
He knows how hard the transition to American life can be.
“Abreu is behaving like a veteran,” he said. “First class.”
Contreras, who went 78- 67 with a 4.57 ERA in 11 big- league seasons, supports commissioner Rob Manfred’s idea of playing exhibitions in Cuba.
He’s proud of the latest wave of Cuban big- leaguers — there were 25 in the majors last season— even though, like Abreu and the Cubs’ Jorge Soler, they’re mostly hitters.
“This is good for baseball in Cuba,” he said. “But also baseball in general.”
And baseball remains with Contreras.
“Baseball is my life,” he said. “I will play until I can’t.”
“If [ my arm] falls and goes to the ground, I’ll kick it. And if I can throw strikes, I’ll keep going.” — Jose Contreras