Connie Marrero, a Cuban treasure

BY ROBERT CASSIDY | bcassidy@newsday.com

April 7, 2008

Connie Marrero, once a pitcher for the Washington Senators, is, at 96, the oldest former living major league baseball player in Cuba. While in the United States, he pitched against Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams and other legends, being selected to the All-Star Game in 1951. He lives with his grandson in Havana. (Newsday composite/Robert Cassidy)

HAVANA - Connie Marrero once struck out Mickey Mantle three times in one game. Not bad for someone who learned how to pitch by throwing oranges on a farm in Cuba.

As with most of his stories, the Mantle anecdote is punctuated by Marrero's dry sense of humor. This particular incident, he explains, started long before the actual three-strikeout punchline. Once, during a spring training exhibition against the Yankees, Marrero lined a sharp single to right field. Mantle, who was playing right that afternoon, fielded the ball and threw Marrero out before he could reach first base. Everyone laughed, including Marrero. But he warned Mantle after the game, "One day, I'll get you back."

He did.

And Mantle wasn't the only star on the wrong end of one of Marrero's famous sliders. The righthander, known as "El Premier," pitched five seasons for the Washington Senators and was selected to the 1951 All-Star Game. He put up respectable numbers (39-40 and a 3.67 ERA lifetime) despite reaching the major leagues at the age of 38.

Playing for Washington didn't help his stats, either. The Senators were perennial cellar dwellars and inspired the saying, "Washington, first in war, first in peace and last in the American League."

Today, Marrero lives in a small apartment in Cerro, a neighborhood of Havana, not far from the famous "El Gran" stadium in which he dazzled opponents and delighted his countrymen. At the age of 96, he is the fifth oldest living major leaguer and the oldest former major leaguer in Cuba.

"He's going to live forever," said Gil Coan, a former teammate of Marrero's with the Senators. "He was quite a character when we were playing in Washington. He was a lot of fun to be around."

Marrero's eyesight is failing, so he rarely leaves the apartment he shares with his grandson Rogelio, and Rogelio's wife and children. Before his vision declined, he enjoyed getting out for a game of dominos. Now he finds pleasure from a good cigar and a chance to talk baseball. His wit and memory remains as sharp as the break on his slider. When he was asked when he might have been at his best on the mound, Marrero leaned forward in his green lawn chair and said, "Bueno." Then he thought for a moment and answered, "1938."

That was 12 years before he debuted for the Senators.

Born on a farm in Sagua la Grande, Cuba, he spent most of his early years playing amateur ball in the rural surroundings near Santa Clara. He rose to prominence while pitching for the Cuban National team in the 1939, 1940 and 1942 World Cups. Then he went on to the legendary Cuban League, where the eternal rivals Havana and Almendares dueled in much the same way the Yankees and Red Sox do today. For whom did he play?

"Almendares!" he declared proudly, almost surprised the question had to be asked.

He was prompted to describe the intensity of the rivalry. "Si," he said, leaning forward in his chair once again. "That rivalry," he said, speaking through a translator, "was so intense that the ballplayers from Almendares and Havana would not speak to each other. I met a couple and the wife was a fan of Havana and the husband was a fan of Almendares and in order not to get divorced, they were not allowed to talk about baseball inside the house."

One of Marrero's teammates on Almendares was Tommy Lasorda, the Hall-of-Fame manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. "Connie Marrero could throw a ball in a teacup -- that's the kind of control he had," said Lasorda. "A Sunday doubleheader between Havana and Almendares, the stadium is packed. Connie Marrero against Julio Moreno. What a game. Those two guys were so good. Connie Marrero was about 5-foot-5 and I swear you could catch him with a teacup.

"Almendares wore blue and Havana wore red and the fans all dressed according to their team," he continued. "They once told me a story that a father kicked his son out of the house because he pulled for the other team. They were just tremendous, diehard, energetic fans."

In the late 1940s, the Marrero legend grew considerably as the pitcher began pulling double duty. He was the top starter for Almendares in the winter and was named Cuban League MVP in 1947 and '48. In the summer, he pitched for the Havana Cubans, a Washington farm team in the Florida State League, where he was a 20-game winner each year from 1947-49. He was named the Florida State League MVP in 1949.

He finally took his trademark slider to the major leagues in 1950.

"He had an excellent slider," Coan said. "He could make the slider move either way. I don't ever remember him walking a lot of people. Marrero, Satchel Paige, that's the way they got you out. They could spot the ball wherever they wanted to throw it. He was first-class. I never heard anyone complain about him. When they handed him the ball he went out there to beat up on somebody."

"He was a smart kind of pitcher," said Mickey Vernon, another former teammate with the Senators. "He threw a lot of sliders. He wasn't overly fast. He wasn't too young either when he came to the big leagues, which makes what he did even more impressive."

The teammates remember him for his personality as much as his pitching.

"He didn't learn the language too fast, but he knew what you were talking about, he had a great sense humor," said Vernon. "I liked him a lot. My daughter was a few months old and we had a room next to Connie at a hotel in Orlando for spring training. Every morning, he would say he could hear the baby crying. But you know, before spring training was over he gave my daughter a gold necklace. She still has it."