Antonio Eduardo Martín Sánchez

Announcer, sports narrator of Cuban radio and television. Distinguished journalist and writer. National Television Prize winner.

Eddy at the El Cafetal farm, in Tamarindo, Morón, Ciego de Ávila. From a very young age he felt a passion for sports, especially swimming and baseball, which he practiced during his time at Los Maristas school. He played almost every position: catcher, short stop, pitcher, outfielder, fielder and batter.

He began his radio career when he was only fourteen years old, in the sports newscast of the CMJH radio station La Voz de la RCA Víctor, in his hometown. There he worked as an editor and announcer.

His artistic interests drove him to enroll in the College of Announcers of Camagüey, which proved to be a failed attempt as he did not pass the exam. On December 31, 1948, at only 19 years old, he arrived in Havana, accompanied by his mother. There he had to do different jobs to earn a living. Once in the capital, he took an exam called by the Ministry of Communications and obtained his announcer's license.

As a professional, he began as a substitute announcer for commercials between innings in baseball games broadcast by CMBZ Radio Salas and CMBQ Radio Continental. New possibilities opened up for him one day in 1949 at the El Cerro stadium, currently Estadio Latinoamericano, when Manolo de la Reguera was able to verify his skills in announcing. Later he worked at Radio Continental, Cadena Roja, Radio Lavín, Radio Cadena Habana, the Cuban National Network and Radio Rebelde.

He ventured into print journalism as a journalist. Some of the publications in which his writings appeared are: Bohemia Magazine, Revista de Avance (1955-1959) and Cuba; the weeklies LPV, Vamos (from Guanabacoa), El Deporte: derecho del pueblo; and the newspapers Revolución, Hoy, Granma and Juventud Rebelde. In the latter, from 1966 to 1973, he wrote the column Antena which included analysis, reflections and anecdotes; and he served as head of the sports section.

His name is inscribed among the greats of Cuban sports narration from the mid-1950s, when he had already made memorable appearances on television as well. He was an announcer of newscasts, music programs and narrator of soap operas.

In the first months after the Revolution's triumph, he was the presenter of the emblematic figures of the new government; thus, he participated in tours through North and South America, as part of the delegation that accompanied President Osvaldo Dorticós, Chancellor Raúl Roa and Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro.

He participated in the founding of the Independent Front of Free Broadcasting Stations (FIEL) which for a time was recognized as the governing body of Cuban radio and television, until in November 1960 control of broadcasts was assigned to a Broadcasting Office, attached to the Ministry of Communications. He was also present at the most important social and political events of the time; for example, the signing of the Agrarian Reform Law (May 17, 1959), an occasion in which he shared the Radio Rebelde microphones with veteran Jorge Enrique Mendoza Reboredo. Both were in charge of presenting and reading all the articles of the Law that ended latifundia in Cuba. This historic broadcast was made from the original Radio Rebelde booth on Pico de la Plata.

As a journalist, he covered four conferences of foreign ministers of the Organization of American States (OAS) and two general assemblies of the United Nations (UN).

Another milestone that marks his career as an announcer is having been founder of the National Television News, broadcast for the first time on November 2, 1961, and which has been considered, since its creation, a baptism by fire for broadcasting professionals on the Island. For many years, Martin did the announcing for both newscasts alongside Manolo Ortega, another great of Cuban announcing.

Also in 1961, he served as narrator of the First National Baseball Championship between the Eastern and Western Region, broadcast through CMQ. In the First National Series (1962) he worked with Rubén Rodríguez and Rafael Gavilán, until in the second series, he joined Juan Antonio (Bobby) Salamanca, his unforgettable partner, with whom he formed an irreplaceable pair in Cuban sports narration. Among the most memorable moments performed by this pair of professionals is the Baseball World Series in Cartagena (1970), when they narrated the intense game played by Cuba against the United States of America. Another partner with whom he shared the camera and microphone for 35 years was Héctor Rodríguez, one of the most popular figures in the field to this day.

The events of Cerro Pelado, when Cuba suffered the obstacles imposed by the U.S.A. to prevent its participation in the X Central American and Caribbean Games, in San Juan, Puerto Rico (1966), constituted a baptism by fire in his career. On that occasion he was the only sports narrator and commentator who was part of the delegation, which ultimately won first place in the competition.

Through the frequencies of Radio Progreso, and under the direction of José Antonio Caiñas Sierra, he narrated the events first aboard the vessel and then from the competition grounds. According to some specialists, this was the date when the radio station reached the highest tuning indexes. The national network master control received the narration via telephone from San Juan and sent it to the transmission centers, while also offering this signal to other departments that recorded it for use in radio and television newscasts, and as reference for newspapers and magazines.

Throughout his career as an announcer and sports narrator he achieved the impressive figure of 45 National Baseball Series, numerous World Games, 7 Olympic Games (from Munich to Athens), 9 Central American Games and 11 Pan American Games. Initially, the narrations of these international sporting events were broadcast exclusively by radio, but during the 1975 Mexico Pan American Games, Eddy Martin inaugurated television broadcasts from abroad. One of his last international coverages was in March 2006, during the First World Baseball Classic in Puerto Rico and San Diego, United States, where the Cuban team finished in second place.

Eddy Martin mentioned that among the greatest emotions of his life was having narrated from Baikonur for Cuban television, the space flight of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), piloted by Yury Romanenko and Cuban Arnaldo Tamayo, in 1980.

Other television programs for which he is remembered are A Jugar and the Revista de la Mañana.

He attended the founding of the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER). Since the inauguration of the Habana Radio station, he dedicated himself to writing chronicles that received the acceptance and admiration of his listeners.

He is considered an illustrious son of Tamarindo, his hometown; for which reason the young people of the Computing and Electronics Club of the municipality of Florencia have created a multimedia presentation that covers the life and work of this distinguished sports narrator, which includes testimonies from local residents and a gallery of images donated by his children that shows much of his life. It also contains unpublished letters written in his own hand during the two occasions he was imprisoned, during the time of the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.

For his dedication to work he received innumerable honors, including: José Martí Journalism Prize for a Lifetime's Work, National Television Prize, Distinction for National Culture, Replica of the Machete of Máximo Gómez, 40th Anniversary Medal of the FAR, title of Merit Artist of Radio and Television, Medal of the World Association of Sports Press, Sport and Media Trophy of the Cuban Olympic Committee and the title of National Hero of Labor, which was presented to him personally by Fidel Castro.

A self-taught professional, still without a university degree, he was a teacher to several generations of journalists and sports narrators. He dedicated two decades of his life to teaching. He taught several courses and lectures at the University of Havana and Santiago de Cuba; and in other centers of higher education abroad. Furthermore, he was a member of the National Panel of Evaluators of Sports Narrators, and Jury of the National Festival of Cuban Radio from its inception.

The XIV International Book Fair of Havana was the setting in which two of his books appeared: Baseball for Girls and Boys, which contains elementary knowledge of the game, and Memory to my Seventy and..., a personal collection of anecdotes. Another published text is Along the Routes of Olympus, in which he reviewed the performances of Alberto Juantorena, double Olympic gold medalist in Montreal 1976, and the three-time Olympic and World champion, Teófilo Stevenson.

He passed away at the age of 77, in Havana, in mid-August 2006, as a result of injuries suffered in a traffic accident that occurred on July 21. He was buried in the Pantheon of the Revolutionary Armed Forces in Colón Cemetery. To this day he is remembered as "the dean of sports narrations" of Cuba.