Conrado Marrero Ramos

Cuban baseball player, pitcher, known as the "Guajiro de Laberinto" or "El Premier". He worked in five amateur world series and was named the most valuable player in the 1940 series, won by Cuba. He is considered a Glory of Cuban sports.

He is considered one of the best Cuban pitchers of all time. He excelled in all the circuits where he worked, supported by his remarkable control and precise knowledge of the strike zone. At almost forty years old he debuted in the Major Leagues, where he competed for the Rookie of the Year award.

After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution he remained on the Island helping to form the new generations of pitchers. He was awarded the title of Hero of Labor of the Republic of Cuba and the Orden Lázaro Peña. In his honor, journalist Severo Nieto Fernández wrote the biographical book "Conrado Marrero. El Premier".

Strong as an oak, easygoing and a talker beyond measure, he is the living image of the Cuban peasant. With a fabulous memory, capable of remembering facts and anecdotes in detail, always accompanied by the Havana cigar, symbol of innate Cuban character.

After so many years, especially from the winter of 1937, when the capital club Atlético de Cuba visited the city of Cienfuegos to play two exhibition games with the Casa Stany team, the name of Conrado Marrero began to resound...

-I am and will always be from the countryside. Back at the Laberinto farm, alongside my older brothers, I helped the old man, because those were difficult times. How was I going to think about playing ball or anything like that! I learned to field bare-handed and I was already wearing long pants and even had a mustache. Do you know how I learned to throw curves?: well, with clean orange throws.

Often, Marrero was invited on weekends to play in Sagua la Grande, Isabela de Sagua and other nearby towns. Precisely, in Isabela, in the year 1937, he defended the mound for the local team against the visiting Casa Stany players, loaded with stars like the Fleitas brothers –Anselmo, Ángel and Andrés-, Charles and David Pérez.

-Look, kid, the people from Cienfuegos arrived with tremendous fame. That team was being expected in Havana to participate in the Amateur Athletic Union championship. And you can believe it, I defeated them 1 to 0. Then, the owner of the business, Ricardo Peñas de Armas, proposed that I play with them.

Although Conrado Marrero started quite late in organized baseball, upon debuting with Casa Stany he achieved a record of 10 wins and 7 losses. This result helped the Cienfuegos representatives finish in fourth place, preceded by Hershey (champion), Regla and Fortuna. He also wore the uniform of the CUBA national team, participant in the II Amateur World Championship, held at La Tropical stadium, alongside renowned pitchers such as Pedro "Natilla" Jiménez, Wenceslao González, Eliécer Álvarez and Tamayo Saco.

-Back then he pitched the second game against the United States and defeated them 13 to 3, allowing five hits. A day earlier, "Natilla" Jiménez had an unforgettable duel with Nicaraguan José Antonio Meléndez and won 4 to 3.

However, what was unforgettable was the loss against Venezuelan Daniel "Chino" Canónico in the extra inning game of the 1941 World Series. They played well in the first three innings and the Cubans could only score one run off Canónico, who was having a great day. Fortunately, the following year, they got revenge with a shutout of 8 to 0 against the same Canónico.

The passage of the "Guajiro de Laberinto" through the amateur ranks was impressive and the statistics confirm it. In eight seasons (1938-1945) he won 123 games and lost 39, including three no-hit, no-run games: Vedado Tennis Club, May 11, 1942; Universidad de La Habana, September 1, 1942, and Miramar, May 25, 1945.

-In reality, he never was interested in signing as a professional, but on two occasions the Amateur Athletic Union suspended him for participating in exhibition games. The first, when he played in Camagüey, in 1943; and the other, in 1945, for doing so in Santa Clara. After the second suspension he had no other alternatives and Reinaldo Cordeiro offered him a contract to join the Chihuahua club, in the Mexican League. That year of 1945 he won the pitching title with a record of 28 wins and 8 losses.

Marrero's transition to professional ranks in Cuba was in no way easy, because upon returning from Mexico the Cienfuegos and Habana teams did not want to sign him.

His first experience as a paid player came at La Tropical stadium, the same venue for his great successes in the world championships, although this time he played in the 1946-1947 season with the Oriente team in the Cuban Federation championship.

When the aforementioned Federation dissolved, due to disagreements between management, the tournament was left incomplete and Marrero was signed by Almendares in an open battle with Cienfuegos, one of the clubs that months earlier had refused to sign him. In the midst of the winter competition, Adolfo Luque, manager of the Almendares team, stated: "Marrero is as good as the best right-handed pitcher in Cuba. He is in my plans for the next championship".

-If you only knew, I remember exactly my debut in the Cuban League. On January 30, 1947, Luque gave me the ball against Marianao and I defeated them 4 to 1. I was about to turn 36 years old.

The next triumphant step was determined by his joining in the summer of 1947 to the International League of Florida (AA), where he pitched for the Havana Cubans and won the triple crown for pitchers with a record of 25 wins and 6 losses; an earned run average of 1.66 (result of 50 runs allowed in 271 innings pitched); strikeouts (with 251 recorded) and only 46 walks granted.

On Saturday night, July 12, Conrado pitched at the Nuevo Stadium del Cerro, against Tampa, the fourth no-hit, no-run game of his life.

Before reaching the Major Leagues (1950), he was already known as "El Premier", and he added to his growing record of service his first of two victories achieved in the Caribbean Series with Almendares. In 1949 he defeated Venezuela 16 to 1, represented by the national champion Cervecería Caracas.

-Due to his performances during three seasons with the Havana Cubans (70 wins and 25 losses), Mr. Joe Cambria, scout for the Washington Senators, proposed that he play with them. Four days before turning 39 years old (on April 21, 1950) he pitched his first game in the Major Leagues and with the Senators I stayed until 1944.

The equanimity and courage of Conrado Marrero were two virtues that often deserved headlines in the sports pages inside and outside of Cuba. For specialists, apart from his control, the two aforementioned elements allowed him to overcome the most difficult situations and reach the highest level in baseball at an age when others were already retired.

-I cannot explain to you that matter of courage, because right now I do not know if I am brave. For me there is nothing capable of making me lose my temper, or disturbing me... If I lost, bad luck. If I got into complications, I tried to get out. A pitcher is an artist and his art consists of getting outs on batters. If there are three men on base and the fourth batter is at the plate, what should be done is prevent them from connecting. The main thing for a pitcher is to think...

At the age of 47, after two seasons with no decisions wearing the Marianao uniform. "El Guajiro de Laberinto" said goodbye to the Cuban fans, who throughout 21 seasons as an amateur and professional player always showered him with heartfelt affection. Over all that time he accumulated 351 victories and 168 defeats.

He retired from active sports in 1958. After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution he remained on the island and carried out extensive work in training pitchers from various provinces, which in 1999 earned him recognition as Hero of Labor of the Republic of Cuba.

He only stepped away from the stadiums when, at almost one hundred years old, he began to lose his vision, but he continued listening by radio to the baseball games of the National Series.

He died in Havana on April 23, 2014 at 102 years of age. Before his death he was the longest-living former Major League player still alive.