Juan Antonio Salamanca

Cuban sports commentator who created a distinctive narration style, and whose voice accompanied the National Baseball Series for decades, as well as the performances of Cuban baseball teams in the most diverse tournaments. His ingenuity and sense of humor led him to make multiple contributions to baseball terminology that have survived the test of time, and he is considered among the best narrators of all time in Cuba.

Salamanca's first sports narration occurred in the late nineteen-forties, in a radio participation show that was hosted by Germán Pinelli.

Salamanca sang the song "Granada", but was unable to win the prize. A few weeks later he returned to the same program and this time he recited the poem "El Duelo", although he was also eliminated. Salamanca was a persevering man and returned for a third time to Pinelli's show. To everyone's amazement, Salamanca narrated an imaginary duel between the star pitcher of Almendares, Conrado Marrero, and the burly batter of Habana Perucho Formental.

The skill in narrating with terms different from the usual ones motivated Salamanca to win first place and with it the three pesos and the bag with gifts that the sponsors bestowed on the winners.

The victory in the show inspired Salamanca to redouble his efforts to pay for a narration course. Thanks to that degree he was able to start working at the Radio Marianao station, which was located in the surroundings of the National Bus Terminal.

It was there that the nickname by which he would be known his whole life originated. The secretary of the director of that station used to call Salamanca "bobito" and thus, when closing his program, Juan Antonio would usually say goodbye as "el bobi Salamanca" to play along with the girl. From that moment on, the famous nickname was born, never to disappear again.

Behind the microphone, Bobby was a true genius and today he is remembered, among other things, for his imagination in readapting to baseball various terms specific to sugar harvests, and also for the creation of epithets for important Cuban ballplayers.

As professor Rogelio Letusé la O acknowledges in his excellent book "Béisbol, términos y anécdotas", Bobby's idea of converting the field into a "feverish sugarcane field" began in the late nineteen-sixties and had much to do with the national context of that era.

Bobby adapted to baseball many of the terms with which people daily related to during the harvest; but it was not only the invention, but the moment when he decided to use them that made his narration style unique.

For example, the team manager was the "brigade chief"; the batters were the "machete men" and the strike was replaced by the unforgettable "sugar". The bat was the "blade" and if there were no runners on base, Bobby would say that "the boundary line was clean".

The moment of the strikeout is one of the most remembered in Bobby's terminology, as here came the "three blade swings and he sent it to the trash". In the case of a hit, the expression used by the narrator was "cane" and if the hit occurred in an international event, then it was "Cuban cane". A connection that drove more than one runner inspired Bobby to say that "there was no cane left in the top, nor top left in the cane."

The presence at the plate, called by Bobby the "central", of a dangerous "machete man" was the moment when "the sugarcane field trembled" and if in the on-deck circle another "dangerous machete man" positioned himself, then he "sharpened his blade". A spent pitcher did not go to the showers, but rather "they had applied the lifter" to prevent the rival from continuing to produce runs, that is, "the grinding continued on a large scale".

After the craze for the harvest, Bobby readapted some terms and the new inventions, once again, delighted the public. Then, if the batter received the first strike, Bobby commented "the fish bit the hook"; when the second strike came, he said "the fish fell in the frying pan" and, then, he issued a series of adjectives: "he was dejected, worried, dazed, sunken, drowning, and in over his head in the count".

In addition to these strokes of genius, Salamanca also created several epithets, among them "The Giant of Escambray" to refer to the star first baseman of the central teams and the national team, Antonio Muñoz. This was not the only one and the list, without a doubt, is extensive.

One of the most complete players in the history of Cuban baseball, the Pinar native Luis Giraldo Casanova, was called by Bobby "The Baseball Gentleman"; while Víctor Mesa was "The Orange Explosion" and when it came time for Pedro José Rodríguez, Salamanca pronounced this phrase with respect: "Come Forward, Mr. Home Run", in allusion to Cheíto's enormous power.

Bobby's occurrences and great contributions have been threatened by time, as well as by the players and significant events of that era, especially those prior to 1959. The permanence in memory is put to the test with the passing of days for those who remain determined not to allow the forgetting of the actors in the construction of Cuban baseball, from the playing fields, the microphones, and the newsrooms.