Pedro Gómez Martínez

Preston was the second Latin American baseball player who officially managed a Major League team, "Preston" Gómez, at the Saint Elizabeth Health Care and Rehabilitation Center in Fullerton, a city located East of Los Angeles, California.

The beginning of the end for Preston started on Wednesday, March 26, 2008, when he was hit by a pickup truck at a gas station. After filling up the gas tank, Preston told his wife Betty that he would walk a bit to stretch his legs, before suffering the fatal accident.

On that occasion, police sergeant Jeff Wade said that Gómez suffered head injuries in an incident that occurred at 6:30 in the morning at a Chevron service station in Blythe, about 220 miles east of Los Angeles. He indicated that it was "an unfortunate accident" and that the former baseball player was hit by a vehicle driven by Jesse Mashore, 31 years old, who was holding Gómez's hand when police arrived. Mashore was not detained as he was not found to be at fault in the incident. By one of those incredible coincidences, Mashore turned out to be a cousin of Damon Mashore, a former player and now Minor League coach for the Angels.

An MRI showed that apparently he had not suffered head damage, but the repercussions of the accident from which he never recovered kept him for months between the hospital, his home, and finally at the rehabilitation center.

His record as a Major League manager was 346-529. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Hispanic Baseball Heritage Museum in 2003 and into the Hall of Fame of Cuban Baseball in Exile in 1984. In 1981 he joined the Los Angeles and Anaheim Angels as third base coach and four years later was named special advisor to the general manager, a position he held until his death.

From 1965 to 1968, he was third base coach of the Los Angeles Dodgers, during which time the team won a couple of National League divisional championships, participating in the World Series of 1965 and 1966, under the direction of Walter Alston. In the first one the Dodgers defeated the Minnesota Twins in seven games and in the second they were shut out by the Baltimore Orioles.

There are few managers who will be remembered forever in the annals of Major League baseball for the consequences of their interventions and decisions, and one of them is Pedro "Preston" Gómez Martínez, who was born on Friday, April 20, 1923 at Central Preston, province of Oriente, which is the reason he is known by that name.

He appeared in eight games with the Washington Senators in 1944, playing second base and shortstop at 21 years of age, getting a pair of hits in seven at-bats for an average of .286. Preston never returned to the Major Leagues as a player, but built an impressive career as a manager and coach in the Minor and Major Leagues and as an executive at almost all levels of the sport.

He led the unforgettable "Cuban Sugar Kings" of the International League to the conquest of "The Little World Series," which crowned them absolute monarchs of the Triple A circuits of the United States, defeating the Minneapolis Millers managed by Gene Mach.

Later he became the first Cuban and Latin American manager to officially command a Major League team in 1969, when he took charge of the expansion team, San Diego Padres in the National League. That was a memorable year, as with the addition of the Seattle Pilots and the Kansas City Royals in the American League, added to the Padres and Montreal Expos in the oldest of the circuits, history was made with the beginning of the Championship Series (playoffs) in the Big Show.

Preston's career as manager stretched for seven years, divided among three teams: Padres (1969-72), Houston Astros (1974-75), and Chicago Cubs (1980).

He increased his prestige and became more well-known when he became the first manager to walk to the mound to remove two pitchers who were on the verge of achieving no-hit games.

The first time occurred on July 21, 1970 in San Diego, when Clay Kirby was just three outs away from entering the Hall of Fame, for the simple reason that he had not allowed even the shadow of a hit to the New York Mets in eight complete innings. But there was a problem, and a big one. The Padres were losing 1-0 and had to score at least one run to tie the score.

In the second half of the eighth with two outs, it was Kirby's turn to bat and Preston did what he had to do. He sent Cito Gaston (current manager of the Toronto Blue Jays) to bat as a pinch hitter for the pitcher. Gaston hit a fly ball ending the inning. As a consequence, the fans booed and shouted "rest in peace" at Preston, especially after relief pitcher Jack Baldschum allowed a couple of runs in the top of the final inning.
While the sentimental fans criticized Preston, the true baseball experts applauded him, because "a manager's duty is to win games at all costs for the team and the public and not to preserve individual records."

The situation was still being discussed in sports circles when four years later the same situation arose again. This time Preston was managing the Houston Astros in a game played on September 4, 1974.

Pitcher Don Wilson had not allowed a hit in eight innings to the Cincinnati Reds batters in Houston, but when it came time for Wilson to bat in the eighth with no outs, Preston did not hesitate to remove him from the game, as the Padres were losing 2-1.

Tommy Helms came out as a pinch hitter for Wilson and grounded out to shortstop. Greg Gross who started in the lineup hit a single to center and went to third base with another hit by Roger Metzger to right field. The situation looked promising for the Astros and for Wilson who could at least escape the loss and with luck even win the game. However, Dominican César Cedeño struck out and Metzger was thrown out by catcher Johnny Bench in an attempted steal.

Despite the fact that backup catcher Mike Cosgrove threw a shutout (zero) in the ninth, the Padres could do nothing in their turn at bat and lost by a score of 2-1.

Wilson in any case entered the record books, with a couple of no-hit games credited to him, but Clay never came close to pitching another one.

As for Preston, whenever he was asked if he would repeat his controversial actions again, the answer was quick to come: "Of course I would, you cannot impose a record at the expense of a team, its fans, and the other 24 players who all want to win."