Pedro Jiménez

Pedro Natilla Jiménez, Cuban baseball player. One of the emblematic figures who enhanced Sports in Cuba before 1959. Established as a pitcher, good batter and outstanding coach.

Native of Santa Cruz del Norte, his connections to baseball led him to bring workers from the sugar mill to the cantina at his house, escaping on multiple occasions to watch games at the stadium. There he was discovered by Joaquín Viego, manager of Hershey, who was impressed with his physique, managing to convince him to participate in the team's training on alternate days.

His beginning was as a practice catcher. Upon seeing him throw, Viego recommended he perform as a pitcher, admiring that he possessed a respectable arm. At first he was very wild, but his dedication and perseverance led him to stellar levels, debuting on May 16, 1936.

From that moment on, he provided his Hershey Sport Club team with 3 consecutive championships in the Amateur Athletic League in the years 1938, 1939, and 1940.

In his years of maximum splendor with his six feet in height and 210 pounds of weight—late 1930s and 1940s—he was one of the most distinguished Cuban amateur mound men in baseball.

He was declared the most famous player in 1938, with a fabulous campaign of 15 victories and one loss in the Cuban series, Western-Central Champion. He triumphed against Cárdenas Sports, pitching 3 shutouts with scores of 3 to 0, 9 to 0, and 11 to 0, including a no-hitter and no-runner, striking out 30 batters.

As an athlete his main attributes were tremendous speed and a very pronounced downward curve, his preferred pitch to prevail in decisive moments with impressive courage and valor.

Subsequently, starting in 1962, he stood out as a seasoned technician, coach, scout, and team director. He worked mainly in Oriente and Las Villas, where his legacy was greatest. In that former province in central Cuba, he directed teams and stood beside—advising and teaching his wisdom to—the novice 21-year-old director Servio Tulio Borges, both with Azucareros and with Team Cuba until 1972. He was the discoverer and best coach of several distinguished mound men and baseball players, among them José Antonio Huelga and Antonio Muñoz, who at certain moments became the best pitcher and batter in Cuban Baseball.

Origin of the Nickname

His nickname Natilla comes from his father, who in a railway derailment, when there was no lunch available, ate approximately 19 servings of natilla, weighed 256 pounds, and had a haughty temperament. Secretly, his coworkers nicknamed him Natillón and his son Natilla, later registering a record of 79 wins.

He participated representing Cuba in four amateur world championships 1939-1943 and in Central American Games Panama 1938, accumulating 9 victories and 1 loss, where he worked as a starting relief pitcher and ventured as a batter.

On August 12, 1939 in 1 extra inning of 10 innings, he defeated Nicaragua 4 to 3 in a closely fought confrontation against José Luis, "the Chinese" Menéndez, another colossus of that era, having the privilege of becoming the first pitcher to win a game for Cuba in a world championship, achieving leadership among pitchers with 3 and 0 and an average of 0.95 earned runs.

Victim of chronic kidney failure, "Natilla" died at "Camilo Cienfuegos" Hospital in the capital on March 8, 1979, at age 61. He was laid in state at the Sports Museum of Santa Cruz del Norte, where he spent his final years, and was buried in his native Jaruco.