Pavel Pino former Industriales pitcher one step away from being the first Cuban to play in Australia

December 24, 2021

The Australian Baseball League (ABL) is one of the least known among Cubans among the professional circuits of countries with baseball tradition. Logically, the distance of the island continent is what works against it so that its championships are of interest to players and fans of the western hemisphere.

However, there have been several Latin American players who have been inserted into one of the 8 clubs (7 from Australia and 1 from New Zealand) throughout a decade of its professional league (founded with its current structure in 2010-11) and very soon the first Cuban could appear wearing the uniform of one of them.

It is the former left-handed pitcher of Industriales Pavel Pino, who after several years without pitching at a certain level could resume his career as a pitcher.


Pavel Pino pitching for Industriales in the National Series
In conversation with Pino himself, he assured me that he has two quite realistic options at the start of 2022. One would be in the Germán Pomares League in Nicaragua and there is also interest from several teams in the land of kangaroos and koalas after a process carried out through a friend.

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"It will be mid-January when I already have the official offer in both places and then I will make a decision regarding which place suits me best. I don't have much information about Australia but when the time comes, if I finally go there, I will look for a way to learn enough about the league, the teams and the players who will play there next season," said the native of the Los Pinos neighborhood in Arroyo Naranjo.

At 30 years old, Pino generated certain expectations when he traveled to the Dominican Republic in 2015 with the objective of signing with a club in the United States. But an wrong decision by his agent deprived him of the dream of being hired by a Major League organization. Two good offers were rejected by wanting something greater and everything was frustrated right there in paid American baseball.

Subsequently he stayed to live in Santo Domingo and became involved in baseball in the capital of Hispaniola as a coach for minor categories and working in a gym.

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After pitching in Cuba's baseball system where he became one of the capital's main pitchers between 2009 and 2015, Pavel had a brief return three years ago when he contributed to the provincial title of Arroyo Naranjo under the direction of the stellar Rudy Reyes.


Pavel Pino pitching for Metropolitanos in the National Series
According to Pavel, a few days ago he made a special presentation for Nicaraguans and Australians after many months without throwing a ball. His fastball reached 87 miles per hour and he thinks that with better training he could reach 90 consistently.

Upon learning in the conversation we had that no Cuban has played in Australia, he said he felt additional motivation in becoming the first to do so. "It would be interesting to be the first of all Cubans to play there, and also to know such an unknown and distant country on one hand but interesting on the other for everything that has to do with the culture and nature of that country," confessed the man who caused a sensation in that 2011 National Series with Metropolitanos and who was later key in getting Industriales to the finals the following season.