Rafael Ramírez Arias

Cuban sports broadcaster, also known as "Felo Ramírez", or "The Best of the Caribbean". He worked in radio broadcasts in Bayamo, Havana, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and the United States.

He began his sports broadcasting career in Bayamo, then moved to Havana, participating in the Cuban Professional League. He narrated on the island until 1960.

Later he went to Puerto Rico, working in Caribbean professional baseball (Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Venezuela). In 1992 he settled in the United States (Miami), working uninterruptedly for 19 seasons as the official narrator of the Florida Marlins.

He is considered, along with Argentine Buck Canel, as one of the best Spanish-language baseball broadcasters, which is why he has received several awards and honors. He was nicknamed by Venezuelan Leo Nazar as The Best of the Caribbean.

He began his first sports broadcasts at the local station CMKX in Bayamo, then in 1945 moved to Havana, where he worked at Radio Salas, participating in Cuban professional baseball broadcasts until its elimination in 1960. Beginning in 1949, he also broadcast more than 40 Caribbean Series.

From 1961 onwards he was the voice, play by play, of professional baseball in Puerto Rico and Venezuela, narrating the action for the Nativos de Caguas, the Cangrejos de Santurce, the Senadores de San Juan, and the Navegantes de Magallanes. He worked alongside Argentine Buck Canel.

He narrated dozens of World Series from the Major Leagues, All Star Games throughout Latin America. Additionally, he broadcast significant baseball events such as Don Larsen's perfect game in a World Series, Roberto Clemente's 3,000th career hit, and Hank Aaron's 715th home run.

He worked on 31 World Series. The Caribbean native was the narrator for the games of the Florida Marlins, a National League team, with whom he worked from the organization's inception in 1993.

He has also narrated several World Championship Boxing fights, among which are those of: Sugar Ray Robinson, Rocky Marciano, Muhammad Ali, and Kid Gavilán.

In 1985 he received the Ford C. Frick Award, the microphone of the Gillette Sports Cavalcade, a program broadcast on the largest network of Latin American stations in existence. In 2001 he won the Ford C. Frick Award, the highest honor given to baseball broadcasters by the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

In Miami a street adjacent to the new Miami Marlins Stadium bears the name of Felo Ramírez.

Some of the phrases he pronounces during broadcasts; when a hard fastball comes, he says ..."it's smoke"... and when they connect a good hit toward the outfield ..."there goes a stick all through the garden"......"the ball is rising and yyyyy...it cleared the fence".

His unmistakable voice and charisma, beyond his contribution to sports, led him to the Hall of Fame in 2001.

Rafael Ramírez never retired from baseball. He had an accident on April 26, 2017 when he fell off the bus that was transporting the team in Philadelphia. He suffered a severe head injury and had to be admitted to a hospital in the area. His health deteriorated as a result of the accident and he finally passed away on August 21 at the age of 94 in Philadelphia.