Oscar Macías went from being one of Cuba's best baseball players to prisoner and beggar in Miami

October 13, 2021

# Cuban Baseball's Tragedy: The Fall of Oscar Macías

There are not many stories within Cuban baseball capable of surpassing in tragedy and sorrow the one related to the protagonist of this piece, a person who went from one extreme to another in his life and about whom today practically no news exists of his real whereabouts.

No one doubts that former second baseman Oscar Macías became one of the most fearsome hitters in Cuban baseball for more than a decade in which, based on his offensive prowess, he earned a spot on the national team, even as a starter despite coinciding with several outstanding figures in his position such as Antonio Pacheco, Juan Padilla and Yobal Dueñas.

The native of Güira de Melena born in 1969 was consolidating himself first with his teams in the National League (Habana) and Elite Series (Agropecuarios and Habana) until in 1998 the coaches ran out of arguments to exclude him from Team Cuba. He was there, although without great fanfare, since manager Alfonso Urquiola used Pacheco as a utility player and Orestes Kindelán as the designated hitter at the World Championship in Italy and the Central American Games in Maracaibo.

The 1999 Intercontinental Cup would be his first opportunity as a regular, and thanks to his good performance that he would later maintain in the following National Series and national pre-selection, he saw the doors open to secure a spot in the lineup for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. His batting was on par with the best, including the gold medal game where one of the three hits by the squad directed by Servio Borges against American Ben Sheets came precisely from the bat of the strong-hitting player from Melena.

The "bull" remained with Cuba until 2002 when suddenly and without logical explanations he lost his prominence within the national team, especially encouraged by Miguel Valdés' return as technical director. While he served as one of the main decision-makers in the Cuban roster, players like Macías, Javier Méndez, Oscar Machado and Gabriel Pierre received all kinds of justifications for being excluded. In the case of the Vaqueros catcher, it was argued that technically he had defensive difficulties and that they always opted for the versatility of Pacheco, Padilla or Yobal even though their performance in the season and preparation fell short.

At 34 years old, Oscar Macías decided to leave Cuba after being sanctioned and thus found himself marginalized from the national team that would participate in the Santo Domingo 2003 Pan American Games. Upon arriving safely after his departure by boat from the island, the burly ballplayer expressed his real intention to reach the Major Leagues of the United States, something that even in a more favorable era for contracting Cubans like the current one would also prove to be a pipe dream given the offensive level shown by the Sydney Olympic silver medalist.

At the time of his departure, he had left excellent offensive records that included 286 home runs, almost 2,000 hits (1,960), more than a thousand RBIs (1,080) and a .310 average.

The decision should have been made much earlier and perhaps his dream could have become reality, although not as a second baseman. Even in 1999 several of his teammates from the Habana team left by sea, but neither that nor having traveled to U.S. territory in the Cuba-Baltimore Orioles exhibition made him make the decision to emigrate.

But that's life, and sometimes it's not even a matter of being more or less intelligent, however much it is blamed on Macías that he was never a person who thought through his decisions well.

His adaptation to American society never came, and after the frustration of not securing a contract even in the Minor Leagues, a series of personal problems emerged that later brought legal consequences.

According to sources close to the former player, including former teammates, Macías had to serve a prison sentence after hitting his wife. His explosive character combined with drug use, bringing him a rather unpleasant outcome.

Upon his release from prison, the life of someone who had once been in the elite of Cuban baseball never returned to even acceptable levels. He was unable to find work that would allow him to get back on track, which is never easy for an ex-convict, especially when it's a person without close family, full of defects who masters very few trades and doesn't speak the language of the country where he resides.

With the combination of all these elements and distancing himself from the few friends who were willing to help despite his problems and complexes, Macías began to walk a path that very few believed when they learned of his reality.

For approximately five years, the only news that has come about the stellar former Cuban batter is that he has been seen wandering the streets of Miami in the purest style of a homeless beggar. Even until recently, he would get his hair cut at a barber shop he visited once a month as clean and presentable as possible, only to resume his unfortunate daily life asking for charity from those who saw him around.

Even figures close to Macías such as José Ibar, Pedro Luis Rodríguez, Neylán Molina or Juan Carlos Millán have no recent details about him, whether where to find him or how he is doing physically.

What all those who have seen him at some point in these last five years do agree on is that physically and mentally the "bull" is not even a reflection of what he once was, when all his rivals respected him for how dangerous he was athletically, and also, personally.

This is an example of not knowing how to adapt to an environment that has nothing to do with Cuba, where different codes and rules operate in which the outcome will depend greatly on the way each person develops and where the connection with drugs practically will never bring a happy ending, whether you're famous or not.