Pedro Omar Carrero Moreno

On the hill of Lowrey, near the division with the old province of Las Villas and very close to the Jatibonico river in the current municipality of Florencia, Ciego de Ávila, in this beautiful countryside place was born Pedro Omar Carrero Moreno in the heart of a humble and poor family.

His father Pedro Carrero Moreno worked on the railroads and his mother Decila Moreno in tobacco selection, from this marriage were born Pedro Omar and his brother Richard.

His mother passed away when he was 5 years old and he went to live with his aunt Antoniana Carrero and her husband Rosario León until the age of 20 when he finished his studies and became independent.

He completed his primary education at the Lourdes Giral school located in Lowrey, developing as a cheerful, playful child, influenced by his first teachers, Rosa Sorla and Aidee Abreu who opened the path of knowledge for him at this stage.

His recreational activities were horseback riding; but what he enjoyed most was playing baseball, a game that would later become his main activity; but as he himself recounts, it was bush league baseball, not organized, because there were no Physical Education teachers in the schools who could organize this type of activities and what they did was play guerrilla games among themselves.

Already in the middle school stage he studied at the Basic Secondary School in Falla, where he completed 7th and 8th grade, participated in all the sports that had to be performed in Physical Education class, but baseball was his main preference and he continued playing baseball with his classmates and friends, later he entered to continue his studies at the Agricultural Basic School of Cascorro where he completed two years of agricultural basics and from there he was transferred to the Instituto de la Caña in Camagüey graduating as an Agricultural Technician where he participated in all sporting activities, with continuing to play baseball among his preferences. During this period he only participated in one organized game, being a member of the Vertientes team, with the team obtaining the provincial championship, for his performance as an athlete he was selected and made the endorsement to participate in the National Championship, but since he was a student of the sugar cane polytechnic, at that time they did not allow him to participate in the event.

In the early moments of his participation as a baseball player he performed in the position of first base, but he himself as a player realized that he was not a good batter, nor a good fielder since this position required greater effort and it was then that he decided to begin pitching.

To face this new position on the team he had to dedicate himself and make an effort to achieve his goal, one of his unforgettable experiences tells us that at that time there was a pitcher who was already renowned in the territory, José Sánchez an experienced pitcher, this pitcher had just come from playing in an international event and Omar went to play at the Cascorro school against him and managed to beat him, Sánchez was already an experienced player and he was a young country boy, just starting to play baseball. After that experience he began to take baseball more seriously and like it much more, during his development as a pitcher, he admired almost all Cuban pitchers but always wanted to imitate Alarcón, that is why he became a three-quarter sidearm pitcher and managed with his movements, like Alarcón, to show his number to the catcher.

As an active baseball player he played for the first time in the National Series of 1971-1972 and did so pitching at the Estadio Latinoamericano in the City of La Habana in a game that took place between Camagüey and Azucareros.

During his career he had different managers, the most winning Sergio Borges, with him he participated in almost all the events he was in, but for him, the most technical and most capable was José Miguel Pineda since almost everything that is told to us with great remembrance he owes to him, since he was his first manager when he began his performance in the National Series 1971-1972, in that series he pitched only 9 innings, but was acquiring experience and skills for that position, the following year due to problems with the team's 3rd starter Ganaderos, José Miguel promoted Omar Carrero as starter that year winning 12 games and losing 3. In the first Selective Series, which was inaugurated by the teams from Pinar del Rio and Camagüeyanos, he was the designated pitcher and won this game and at the same time became the first Cuban pitcher to win in the 1st Selective Series.

In the history of Omar Carrero there are many aspects to highlight, one of them is having won the Triple Crown, like all pitchers he also always set out to be among the first in these positive pitching aspects and it is in the year 1976 that he achieves that distinction, to achieve this Triple Crown was something very difficult because there were pitchers of great quality and very high strikeout leaders, this being one of the main aspects to achieve this Triple Crown, he became the leader in strikeouts which he achieves with 96 batters struck out. The Triple Crown is being the leader in: Games won, earned run average (ERA) and strikeouts provided. That year he pitched for a 0.42 ERA, won 10 games and had 96 strikeouts.

The most difficult team for him to dominate was Industriales since it had a lineup of many left-handers and he was a pitcher who pitched underhand and it was very easy to hit him. The most difficult batter to dominate was Agustín Marquetti, this player did not hit him for home runs but he was a very intelligent batter.

His preferred pitch to dominate batters in difficult moments was the sinker ball which was natural and very difficult for them to hit, with his average velocity of 87 miles per hour.

This athlete participated in 17 National Series with the teams: Granjeros, Ganaderos, Camagüeyanos and with Ciego de Ávila, was part of champion teams: Ganaderos and Camagüeyanos. He was part of the Cuba team several times where in all participations he obtained the gold medal.

In 1986 he participated in the Central American Games and the World Championship of Colombia, where he pitched eleven innings without allowing runs and was the pitching leader with one victory and one save game, bringing to Cuba the trophy and the Gold Medal.

For him this stage was of great importance as it has helped him to be a better teacher and to be able to provide the experience acquired to his students, he tells us with joy and says "one day I told myself I am an Agronomist, but I am going to study a Degree in Physical Education because that is my profession, it was what I knew, what I wanted most and what he knew best, rolling, catching fly balls, pitching and with great effort and tenacity he managed to graduate as a licentiate culminating with a Gold Title in 1986, it is worth noting that after completing his studies he continues to prepare himself in different postgraduate courses, from 1988 to 1990 he completed the following: Research Methodology, Theory and Methodology of Sports Training, Planning Control and Evaluation of Training in Baseball and Higher Pedagogy among others, that same year he traveled to Japan as a pitching coach to gain experience in this work in that country and exchange knowledge, in 1999 he received a pitching clinic in Cuba by Japanese coaches.

It is because of his experience and this knowledge acquired that allows him to do what he is today, to work as an educator and trainer of new pitchers, so that they can be equal to or better than him, for the benefit of Cuban sports.

During his career with the Cuba team, he participated in a Pan American Games in Mexico, in the Central American Games of Colombia, in a World Series in Italy, in the World Series of Colombia he was selected as the best pitcher of the event and ties the record of 4-0 most wins.

Another aspect we must highlight is that during the XV National Series he became the first pitcher to achieve leadership in earned runs with an average of 0.46 in wins and losses 8 and 0, his task was the fundamental link in the triumph of the Ganaderos in that season. In 1983 he reaches 100 victories, according to an article by Modesto Agüero that begins it with the title "What work it cost to score runs against Carrero", exposing the sporting characteristics of this athlete.

This peasant from Florencia participated as a pitcher in 17 National Series and 12 Selective Series in Cuban baseball, obtaining an average of earned runs in National Series of 2.27 and Selective 2.43, between the years 1974 to 1976 he obtained the following records, four times leader in strikeouts given, three times leader in earned runs, two times leader in games won, once leader in complete games, once leader in strikeouts given, in 1977 he was among the 10 best athletes in events held in Latin America, in Cuba he pitched a no-hit, no-run game in a national event.

For these results in the National Championship of Cuba he is selected as pitching coach of the Cuba Baseball team where he obtains the following results:

1986 in Holland gold medal

Gold medal at the World Series in Italy in 1998.

Gold medal at the Central American Games in Venezuela 1998.

Gold medal at the Holland Tournament in 1998.

Gold medal at the Holland Tournament in 1999.

Pitching coach with the Cuba team that plays for the first time with professional players from the Orioles.

Pitching coach of the Cuba team at the World Series of Chinese Taipei where he achieves a silver medal in 2007.

Pitching coach of the Cuba team that prepared for the World Series in Europe in 2009.

He passed away in his native Florencia from a liver condition at the