THE 2001 SEASON OPENS IN PUERTO RICO
by James Floto

What a day, what a day. The first regular season Major League game ever played in Puerto Rico was played today. It was a day never to be forgotten by the people of Puerto Rico, who adopted the theme "The Day of Puerto Rican Pride" for the occasion. The only downside was that yesterday's 14-8 exhibition game slugfest was a much more exciting game than today's one-sided 8-1 Toronto victory over Texas. But it was a great spectacle, nonetheless.

Here are some of the highlights:

The game was held at Hiram Bithorn Stadium. Hiram Bithorn was the first Puerto Rican to play in the majors. He played with the Chicago Cubs during World War Two, compiling a lifetime 34-31 record, peaking with an 18-12 1943 season. A big, burly guy, he also lead the NL that year with 7 shutouts and a 2.60 ERA. He spent 1944 and '45 in the military, where his weight ballooned to 225 pounds, hurting his chances for a post war comeback. He kicked around the Caribbean after that, and was shot to death on January 1, 1952, when he was playing in the Mexican winter league.

A nice looking modern ballpark, Bithron Stadium was nearly full today, with a crowd of 19,891. It is a small bandbox of a stadium, measuring 313 feet down the right field line, 315 down the left. Reminiscent of Wrigley Field, when the wind is blowing in, it's hard for fly balls to get any lift. When the breeze is blowing out, the home runs fly. The wind was definitely a factor in today's game, as several players were robbed of homers, while extra base hits were reduced to singles or fly ball outs. On the other hand, the wind turned several flies into adventures for the outfielders.

The people of Puerto Rico took advantage of the international coverage to showcase their colorful island culture. There was an hour long performance before the game, unlike anything you would see in, say, Minnesota or Seattle. Puerto Rican "cachi-cachi" music, dance in colorful costumes and, eventually, the national anthems of three countries: Puerto Rico, the US, and Canada.

Although the celebrities were native sons Ivan Rodriguez of the Rangers and Carlos Delgado of the Blue Jays, to me the most moving part of the whole afternoon was the introduction of Roberto Clemente's widow, Vera, and 1999 Hall of Famer, Orlando Cepeda. Mrs. Clemente had a hard time holding back the tears, so moved was she by the outpouring of emotion for her beloved husband, one of Puerto Rico's greatest heroes and the island's Babe Ruth in terms of being a baseball hero for the ages. In a way, after more than a quarter century, Puerto Rico's two Hall of Famers had come full circle. Clemente died in a plane crash after the Pirates dropped the 1972 playoffs to Cincinnati and Clemente had logged his 3,000th hit. The plane, which went down on New Year's Eve of 1973, was chartered by Clemente to take supplies to Nicaraguan earthquake victims. They mentioned today that the gesture was typical of the charitable nature of the Puerto Rican people. What wasn't mentioned was that Clemente did not trust either side in the bitter civil war tearing apart Nicaragua at the time and wanted to make sure the supplies made it to the people they were intended for. Unfortunately, in the rush to take as many supplies as possible, they overloaded the plane and it went down soon after taking off. Clemente's tragic death just added to his growing myth.

Orlando Cepeda had started his career as a huge star himself. Unlike Clemente, who was proud, touchy, serious and somewhat vain, Cepeda was easy going and casual. His love of Latin music earned him the nickname Cha Cha. But he was also a soft touch and whether he was just doing a "favor" for a friend, as he claims in his autobiography, or he made a foolish mistake on his own behalf, Cepeda was arrested for transporting 160 pounds of marijuana. He served 10 months in a federal prison in Florida, and turned from hero to zero, disgraced and humiliated in the eyes of his own people. It has taken decades to rebuild his image, but his election to the Hall of Fame and the applause he drew today left no doubt that Orlando Cepeda has been forgiven. Now both Cepeda and his old friend are forever enshrined in their native land, their numbers painted on the outfield wall, the only two to be so honored.

Then the focus shifted to the heroes of today. Both teams have Puerto Rican superstars, Ivan Rodriguez and Carlos Delgado. There were some interesting parallels in those two young superstars biographies. Both men are from big, supportive families, and each one is close to his father. In fact, Mr. Rodriguez and Mr. Delgado were both important in the boy's baseball careers. The senior Rodriguez revealed the tidbit that Ivan started as a pitcher but threw so hard there was genuine concern he might hurt somebody in Little League. Would be American League base thieves can readily accept that, as Rodriguez throws out about 50% of all runners foolish enough to take off on him. He nailed a runner today. Carlos Delgado's father is a large, serious man, still a baseball coach. He coached Carlos through Little League. When Carlos was a teenager, his attention drifted to beach volleyball for a time. His father said, "Carlos, how many famous Puerto Rican volley ball players have you heard of?" Carlos soon returned to baseball and is now one of the most feared hitters in the game -- last year he hit .344, with 41 homers, 137 RBI and led the AL with 57 doubles and 378 total bases. Both of these men are 29, right at the age that is considered the peak of a hitter's career. Methinks we will hear more from them this year.

And then it was time for the game to start. The 2001 season got under way. A number of milestones were mentioned: the American League is celebrating its 100th season, the Blue Jays their 25th. Esteban Loazia, who pitched a fine game, won his 50th big league game. And Buck Martinez, former backup catcher and longtime ESPN analyst, won his first game as a major league manager. It looks like it is going to be one special season.