Aroldis Chapman was scared when he defected to Cuba

Veteran relief pitcher, Aroldis Chapmanconfessed exclusively for the portal Full Swing, how hard it was to desert from the cuban team who went to compete in Netherlands in an international tournament. The “Cuban Missile” detailed the exact moment when he left the concentration hotel where the delegation from the island was staying in Rotterdam.

When he found out that he would travel to Europe as a member of the Cuban team, the left-handed flamethrower called a friend who lived in the United States so that he could help him emigrate to North America. Back in the Netherlands, Chapman recalled that he was scared to see his friend’s father when he left him a note on a table in the hotel restaurant where the entire team was staying.

“I read the paper, there he was telling me that at the entrance of the hotel there was a gray Volvo with white seats, to wait for me when I came out and that if I had the passport to take it.” Chapman recounted.

The former closer for the Reds, Cubs and Yankees, had to spend some time in Europe before earning free agency in baseball. Before traveling to New York, the seven-time All-Star was in Amsterdam (Netherlands), Madrid (Spain) and Andorra, the country where he obtained residence and therefore, he was able to emigrate to the United States without problems.

For Chapman, he accepted that the most difficult thing about leaving Cuba was that his daughter was barely a day old, whom he could not meet because the trip to Europe was at the door.

ismael hernandez

I have graduated from the Autonomous University of Guadalajara since 2012, graduated as a Bachelor of Communication Sciences. After having been a radio announcer for a few years in the “Perla Tapatía”, I returned to my hometown, Mazatlán, Sinaloa and was hired by Periódico El Debate in May 2019. My first months in El Debate were writing articles for the vertical: “Mi Bolsillo”, however, in September of the same year I became part of the powerful lineup of “Al Bat”, where I still continue to work as a web journalist. In “Al Bat”, we truthfully present to our readers the most relevant news in the world of baseball, mainly from the MLB, winter leagues from Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and the Asian continent. I am a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League and the Boston Red Sox in the American League. My big dream is to see the Fenway Park stadium, the historic site of the “Red Sox”.

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