Cuban Ballplayers Quit Mission to Explore Professional Careers

They didn’t hang around long enough for even a cup of coffee, the Cuban kind.

Just a week after joining the Mission College baseball team, two Cuban defectors who played on various national teams from the Caribbean island have left the squad to explore professional opportunities with major league organizations.

“It was a whirlwind,” said John Klitsner, the Free Spirit coach. “I think they have something in the making about getting into professional baseball.”

The two players, left-handed pitcher Osvaldo Fernandez and left-handed outfielder-first baseman Luis Alvarez, played in only a few games for Mission but apparently impressed major league scouts, even after being virtually out of action since defecting in Curacao last June.

Alvarez (6-feet-3, 220 pounds) got off to a flying start with Mission on Feb. 15 with two home runs in a 7-3 nonconference victory over Pasadena City. Fernandez (6-1, 190) worked four innings and gave up two unearned runs in his only start, a 4-2 nonconference loss at Harbor the following day.

The Cubans, whom Klitsner said were “way better than the typical junior college ballplayer,” had strengthened a solid Free Spirit team that is 8-3 and 3-0 in the Southern California Athletic Conference.

But Klitsner said Fernandez and Alvarez decided to leave this week, partly in an attempt to sign with a professional team and partly because they found the $1,890 out-of-state tuition to attend Mission too steep.

“Our kids really liked them and I liked them,” Klitsner said. “There might have been a little resentment from some of our kids at first who thought these two guys were taking their spots, but we decided we were going to give them the chance they came to America for. That might sound corny, but that’s how we felt.”

Klitsner said he wasn’t bothered by the Cubans’ quick departure and is glad he was able to work with them.

“I don’t feel (betrayed) at all,” Klitsner said. “We all knew they were here (in the United States) to play professional baseball. . . . We feel good about what we did.”