By Robiel Vega
maels rodriguez He was one of the most spectacular pitchers in the National Series, the first in Cuba to have a speed of more than 100 miles per hour measured and one of the most atrocious victims of overuse of his throwing arm.
He integrated the Cuba team to the youth world championship in Canada (1997) and immediately afterwards; He made his debut in the National Series wearing the Gallos uniform.
His performance in national series was really remarkable and in 1999 he joined the national team at the Winnipeg Pan American Games (1999), in which he had a lot of work and with great effectiveness.
Maels’ fastball caused a sensation in the few series he launched, which together with a fast slider, they gave him enough weapons to win games by striking out dozens of batters. The stadiums would fill up two hours before the games started just to watch him pitch.
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The XL national series was in which Maels took as much leadership as he could, to the extreme of achieving the triple pitching crown.
In that season he was co-leader in games started (23), leader in innings pitched (178.1), strikeouts (263, single-season record, practically unbreakable), games won (15), ERA (1.77), player and most valuable Player
A year earlier, in addition to being the leader in strikeouts (177), he threw the only perfect game in the national series, which he achieved against the Las Tunas team, on December 22, 1999, at the “José Antonio Huelga” stadium in Sancti Spiritus.
In the XLI national series, he once again led the strikeouts, with 219. Also in the national series he achieved another zero-hit, zero-run game, that was in the First Super League in 2002.
Maels pitched in 6 national series, in which he managed to win 65 and lose 45, with 42 complete games and 14 shutouts, 2.29 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, and opposing hitters averaged just .177.
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The most extraordinary thing was that Maels struck out 1,148 batters, which is an average of 191.3 per season, something I don’t think any other pitcher has done in national series.
He was also part of the Cuba team at the Sydney Olympics (2000), taking over in the decisive game that the US defeated Cuba. In that game, Maels entered in the fifth inning with the bases loaded, relieving right-hander José Ibar, and after dominating and getting the second out, fourth-batter and right fielder Ernie Young hit center with a cannon that brought two truly definitive scores. .
In 2001 he was part of the Cuba team at the world championship in Taipei; where Cuba won the decisive 5-2 against the USA led by Terry Francona, and the 2002 Intercontinental Cup in Havana; where he won decisive game against South Korea. It would be his last tournament with the Cuba team.
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In the XLII National Series, his last, he won 8 games and lost 3, and already in that season his speed had decreased by about 15 MPH due to a supposed injury.
There was no injury but wear, it was an arm used abusively for any contingency. Maels started 125 games but also relieved 31 and had 12 saves.
In the playoff games of the 2002 national series, Maels Rodríguez pitched in eight of the final 10 games Sancti Spíritus played.
In the last game of this final, starter Ifreidi Coss homered early and immediately afterwards Lourdes Gourriel brought in Maels; who did as well as he could, but that he had had a good dose of work in previous games.
Maels himself assured in an interview: “I think that in Cuba my arm was abused a lot; people from the national team told me, ‘hey, they’re going to rip your arm off’… That’s why I haven’t been able to get where I wanted to in Major League Baseball”.
Maels left Cuba hoping to one day make it to the majors. He was drafted by Arizona in 2005, but didn’t get to pitch. He then underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgeries in 2006 and 2008, but there was nothing left of that fast and dominant Maels.
In his career he accumulated 31% of the victories of Sancti Spíritus; winning 65 of 206 games the roosters managed between 1997 through 2003; impressive to leave the other 69% of the wins to the other 10 pitchers on the team.
He obtained 4 victories in the only Play Off where he was and gave 61 strikeouts, leaving this mark impossible to be surpassed in championship series.
