Ismael Sené Alegret

Historian and sports columnist. Sené is one of the great references on the history of baseball, with a particular way of telling history that has earned him great popularity among baseball fans inside and outside Cuba.

He is a native of Regla, where he completed his early studies. From four or five years old he was already going to baseball games with his father. This allowed him to see some very important events such as the inauguration of the Latino, the second night baseball game, which was when the International League of Florida was created between Miami Beach and the Habana Cubans and they played at the Tropical.

He worked at the Ministry of Foreign Relations and other institutions until his retirement. After retiring, he began to dedicate himself to baseball. But in his life, baseball was always an element of comfort, of joy sometimes of sadness, but it was always present.

Ismael was always an amateur baseball fanatic, he liked professional baseball and was a fierce Almendares fan, he still has the Almendares flag. Amateur baseball was something very close to him, amateur ballplayers you'd see passing by the corner of your house, in the corner bodega drinking beer, they were people you knew personally, so it was a closer bond.

The fact of having a very good memory and being an avid reader made him develop as a baseball columnist. Ismael has said: "Of course the Major Leagues were the pinnacle of baseball, I remember the first time I saw a M.L. game was here in 1952 when the teams came to do exhibitions and I always went to the games."

Among the children of that era, there was a lot of talk about baseball and later when he entered high school he found four or five people just like him, baseball fanatics. He also read everything about baseball that came his way, magazines, books in addition to going to the U.S.A. every year.

With these stories he was the soul of the Cuban television programs "Always Baseball" and "Live Ball."

Sené was President of the National Martiano Council "Always Baseball" since its founding, also President of the Selection Committee of the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame, member of the American Baseball Society (SABR) and this year 2020 he will be officially inducted into the Palmar de Junco Hall of Fame in a ceremony to take place on February 6th.

Ismael Sené died as a result of heart failure at the age of 82.

An octogenarian passionate about baseball, Ismael Sené relived history in words with the passion of a fan and the erudition of a scholar devoted to balls and strikes, with an unmatched charisma "The Wise One" continued playing until the 27th out.