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THE CUBAN MISSILE
Good evening. This is Dead Legends. The daily newsletter that loves baseball as much as Morganna Roberts loved kissing ballplayers.
Let’s dive in.
Today’s story is about a ballplayer who narrowly escaped becoming a political prisoner to make over $130 million in the MLB.
Before he threw the fastest pitch in MLB history, Aroldis Chapman was making less than $2,000 per year and borrowing a friend’s bike for transportation when he played in Cuba.
Chapman didn’t start playing baseball until he was 11, and didn’t even start pitching until he was 15, but just two years later, he was a pro.
What ensued was one of the most chaotic journeys ever to the big leagues.
Aroldis knew that he was worth tens of millions in America, but the trouble was getting over here.
Most Cuban players have to take really extreme risks to make it to America.
In the past we’ve covered the defection stories of Yasiel Puig and Jose Fernandez - both of whom almost died on their journeys.
Chapman was ready to take the risk, but the feds were onto him.
On the first day he attempted to leave Cuba, he was arrested and suspended from baseball for the rest of the season.
In an attempt to save himself from going to prison or even harsher consequences, he became a government informant.
One man, Curbelo Garcia, said that Chapman lied to appease the government, which put Garcia in jail for 10 years.
Garcia said at one point he didn’t see sunlight for six months, and had to drink and shower from the same murky bucket of water.
Eventually, once he got to the US, Garcia sued Chapman for $18 million.
The case was settled out of court.
Finally, in '09, during a tournament in the Netherlands, Aroldis abruptly left the team hotel without telling anyone and escaped the country.
He left his parents, girlfriend and newborn baby behind (eventually, he was able to get them to the states as well).
Six months later, he signed a six-year $30 million deal with the Reds.
WORK IN SPORTS
If you’re looking to find new opportunities in sports, there’s an easy way to find the best jobs out there - Openly.
Its a free newsletter that usually drops once or twice a month and they have some pretty amazing listings.
In last week’s email they had roles at MLB, NBA, 2K, NFL and DraftKings.
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BASEBALL TRIVIA
Which team did Randy Johnson get his 300th win with? |
Find the answer in the bottom of this email!
STRANGE NAMES
If you're just joining us, we play this game every day where we try to find the weirdest names throughout baseball history.
Why? Don't ask us, it's just something we like to do.
If you've been rocking with us for awhile now, you know what time it is.
Today's winner is:
Bill was the 10th overall pick in the 1980 draft, but it was mostly downhill from there.
Unfortunately, he only pitched one season in the big leagues.
The A’s traded Mooneyham to the Brewers in ‘87 and he retired shortly after.
He spent the next several decades as a PE teacher in SoCal.
THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE
If you like this story, check out some of our past favorites:
BASEBALL TRIVIA ANSWER: Giants