Miguel Caldés Luis

Cuban baseball player. He was third baseman and cleanup hitter for the Camagüey Baseball Team in National Series and regular outfielder for the Cuba team.

He was born in the municipality of Bolivia, Ciego de Avila.

Like his uncle Vicente Díaz, he had shown a strong arm as an infielder, which was also used occasionally in shortstop.

As a baseball player he drove in 683 runs, third on the list behind Leonel Moa (857) and Felipe Sarduy Carrillo (685), and was equally the third player in terms of his lifetime batting average with Camagüey teams in National Series with .289, only surpassed by Loidel Chapellí Jiménez (.329) and Luis Ulacia Alvarez (.312).

He was one of the greats of the Jimaguayú municipality squad, several times champion in tournaments in his province, attended the 1988 Youth World Championship in Australia and the 1995 and 1997 Cups. With Camagüey he reached third place in 1998 but what is most remembered is his tremendous home run against Japan at the Atlanta Braves stadium during the 1996 Olympic Games in that American city.

In that game for the gold medal in which the Cuban advantage, who had managed to exploit pitcher Masanori Sugiura, was erased against Camagüey pitcher Omar Luis Martínez, Omar Linares hit three home runs. However, Caldés' blast came at a crucial moment, when the scoreboard showed a tie and a submarine pitcher was stopping Caribbean batters.

His last home run was hit in Moa, Holguín, and perhaps because it was the last one it was enormous. Curiously some fans recovered the ball that fell in a house adjacent to the stadium and subsequently in a generous gesture, they built a glass urn and delivered it to his relatives who donated it to the Sports History Room in the city of the tinajones.

On the international stage, he played for teams that defended the colors of Cuba in:
1996 Olympic Games, in Atlanta, United States and in Sydney, Australia, between September 15 and October 1 of the year of his death.

Death

At one of the railroad level crossings, he was struck by a moving locomotive at the railroad crossing in the Saratoga neighborhood in the capital of Camagüey, in the early morning of December 4, 2000, losing the life one of the most talented baseball players in the province of Camagüey.

In full development as a player, at 30 years old, Caldés was attending his fourteenth National Baseball Series, in which he averaged offensively .289, with 386 extra-base hits, of which 176 home runs and 683 runs batted in, in 1,124 at-bats.

His last home run was hit off Holguín right-handed pitcher Yisnei García, in the ninth inning, toward center field with Loidel Chapellí as the runner on first base.

That year his team stamped his number 18 on the sleeves and caps and inspired by this they climbed to third place in the Cuban baseball championship. When they won the round of sixteen playoff against Villa Clara 3 games to 1, all his teammates took the field led by pitcher Fernando Tejeda, who was carrying a large banner dedicating the collective victory to him amid the heartfelt applause of the Cándido González fans. Later, although they fought hard, they fell 4 games to 2 against Santiago de Cuba.

Every December 4, the date of his death, teammates, family and friends make a pilgrimage to the Camagüey Necropolis where his remains rest.

Records
20 Home runs in the XXXIV National Baseball Series
13 Intentional walks in the XXXVII National Baseball Series