“What do you think about what Ozzie Guillen said about (Fidel) Castro?” I asked the Cuban-born reliever as he stood at his dressing stall in the Reds clubhouse at Great American Ball Park.
The question was in reference to the Miami Marlins manager recently telling Time magazine — as he had the Chicago Tribune a couple of years before — that he “respects” Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. This time he added that he “loved” Fidel.
The admission has brought the wrath of much of Miami’s Cuban exile community down on the Venezuelan-born manager who has lived in Miami the past 12 years.
As heated debate over his comments has swirled and talk of protests and boycotts have gathered steam for the team’s return to town tonight from an eight-day road trip, Marlins management — who just moved the franchise into a splashy new ballpark right in the middle of the Little Havana section of Miami — panicked and Guillen quickly flew back to South Florida earlier this week to hold an emotional, one-man press conference to explain himself and apologize.
When I posed the question to Chapman, his clubhouse interpreter — Reds assistant trainer Tomas Vera, who also is Venezuelan — immediately deflected the query. He held up his hands and said emphatically: “We don’t want to talk about that.”
When Chapman pressed Vera to translate our give and take, he then shook his head to any Castro talk.
Because a few other Cuban players around the big leagues have voiced their opinions on the issue, I wanted to get Chapman’s thoughts, but I fully understand his refusal to be drawn into the discussion.
Castro’s dictatorship has scarred many people over the decades. Going back to the days when the Soviet Union still had a heavy presence on the island, I’ve been to Cuba a few times as a journalist — covering everything from sports and daily life there to the fleeing rafters (they’re called balseros) and political dissent — and I’ve seen the effects of the brutal government rule.
Some of my Cuban friends there were arrested over the years and one simply disappeared after being snatched up by authorities.
Living in Miami for nearly 20 years, much of that time right on the edge of Little Havana, I got to know people there, including some of my best friends, who had had family members imprisoned, shot and even killed for speaking out about Castro.
Because of that I wasn’t surprised when I heard Atlanta Braves pitcher Livan Hernandez — who defected 17 years ago at age 20 — respond the same way Chapman did when asked by MLB.com to comment on Guillen and Castro: “I do not talk about politics. I still have family down there.”
So does Chapman.
A star baseball player in Cuba, he first tried defecting in the spring of 2008, but the plan was uncovered by Cuban authorities, who converged on the beach house where he was hiding as he waited to board a boat under the cover of nightfall.
Instead, he was roughed up by police and eventually sent to Havana to visit Cuban President Raul Castro, who suspended him for the remainder of the season and also kept him off Cuba’s national team headed to the Beijing Olympics.
Castro eventually lifted the ban and on July 1, 2009, Chapman slipped out of a hotel in Rotterdam, Netherlands, where the Cuban national team was playing in the World Port Tournament. He ducked into a car driven by someone he knew and was whisked to freedom.
Back home in Cuba, he left behind his mother and father, his two sisters, his girlfriend and their newborn baby daughter whom he has never seen.
Chapman eventually established residency in Andorra and successfully petitioned Major League Baseball for free agent status. In January 2010, the Reds signed him to a six-year contract worth over $30 million and he made his big-league debut in late August of that year.
Although he left so much back in Cuba, Chapman did bring a couple of lively things with him. His Cuban music now fills the Reds clubhouse every chance he gets to crank it up. And then there is that fastball, which has been clocked as high as 103.9 mph.
Although he had hoped to be a starter this season — and eventually will be, said Reds manager Dusty Baker — Chapman again was relegated to the bullpen when spring training injuries claimed closer Ryan Madson and set-up man Nick Masset.
“I prefer to be a starter,” Chapman said the other day, “but they’ve decided to put me in the bullpen and that’s the job I’m doing.”
And he’s doing it as well as anyone in the major leagues this season.
He has a 2-0 record and is unscored upon. In five innings, he has struck out 10, given up two hits and walked no one.
In the Reds’ 4-3 victory over St. Louis on Wednesday, he made most Cardinals batters look like Little Leaguers flailing away against him. Mixing up his pitches and throwing his fastball in the upper-90-mph range, he struck out five and gave up one hit in two innings.
An impressive hitter during his 19-year big-league career, Baker was asked what it would have been like for him to bat against Chapman.
The thought made Baker laugh, then shrug:
“I faced Nolan Ryan like 50 times, so it would have been a challenge. But as a good hitter, you kind of welcome that. (Chapman) is much like Nolan and Randy Johnson were in their career when they had trouble finding the strike zone. Sandy Koufax, too. A lot of hard throwers like that had trouble finding the strike zone and so a lot of them started in the bullpen like Chapman’s starting.
“That said, I think he’s doing a good job. He’s a very likable young man, a smart young man and he’s adjusting to our society, our system, our way and our culture. And you’ve got to remember, he’s been through more than any one of us can imagine going through ... And he’s probably still going through things.”
And that’s why Chapman treated the Castro question like he did.
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