NELSON DIAZ
Through the years, many baseball players have defected from Cuba to the United States. The Cuban talent has included stars like Tony Perez and Luis Tiant in the ’60s to contemporary players like Jose Contreras, and Livan and “El Duque” Hernandez, and future star Aroldis Chapman. Now, even the umpires are defecting from Cuba. MLB.com has the details of how “renowned” Cuban umpire Nelson Diaz has defected to the U.S.
Diaz worked the World Baseball Classic in both 2006 and 2009. He also worked a multitude of other international baseball tournaments and was the director of umpires for the top baseball league in Cuba. Diaz had been an umpire in Cuba for 26 years.
The story of the Diaz defection has received a lot of play in the Cuban-American community in Miami. The spanish language newspaper El Nuevo Herald had a video taped interview with Diaz. The umpire describes how the first thing he did when he got to the United States was lay flowers on the grave of his mother who Diaz had not seen since she left Cuba for the United States. His mother died in Miami before Diaz got a chance to visit her.
Rob Neyer of ESPN.com speculates on Diaz’s chances of reaching the Majors as an umpire.
Tags: Cuba, Nelson Diaz
