The case of Yunier Mendoza is the classic story of a fine baseball player with bad luck when it comes to making the Cuban teams, who throughout our National Series shows excellent performances in all positions.

In his case perhaps that was precisely his great handicap, because a first baseman is required to have a certain body type and batting power, which did not suit the man from Sancti Spiritus.

Reaching in my memory, after the Pedro Chavez era in the 1960s, I don't remember another Cuban first baseman under 1.80 meter tall, except for Ariel Borrero and Danny Miranda, who had very brief stints with the national team.

Height is important, especially for defense in this position, because it allows a wider margin for infielders when throwing to the base, and although it may not seem like it, a few extra inches translate into a few more outs, taking into account two players of equal quality.

The other unwritten requirement is to contribute enough home runs and RBIs, and here the only exception I remember is Luis Felipe Rivera, much taller, but not a power hitter, who was part of Cuba mainly for his ability to get on base and his speed.

Among those exceptions could be Mendoza, who is supported by his accumulated offensive average of .324 in 25 National Series, which is easy to say, but is not at all simple, and with the third place of all times in the hits section (2,447), only behind Danel Castro (2,502), and Frederich Cepeda (2,491).

In terms of RBIs, he ranks number 18 also showing to be valuable, since after the retirement of Eriel Sánchez he took over as fifth batter to protect Cepeda and even became the RBI leader in Series 61.
"La Regadera trinitaria" hit .385 in the most recent National Series, among the most outstanding of the tournament, and was not even called up to the national pre-selection, which was the last straw.

He only joined the national team in 2010, when he was called up to the Interport Tournament held in Rotterdam, a minor competition, and on that occasion he had a very good performance, so there was no reason to be surprised on the justification that he did not perform well on the national team.

There were eight seasons in which the man from Sancti Spiritus surpassed the 100-hit mark, but ignoring those considerable numbers, in 1973 matches he was never sent off, which clearly speaks of his exemplary behavior.

In a championship where even referee counts are protested, and without forgetting that his team was involved in quite a few collective brawls, it’s admirable that the man from Trinidad always maintained a model behavior, and I value that very much apart from the sympathy he aroused in me for having been born in the city where I spent a good part of my childhood.

That’s why I, who have no say in choosing the members of our national pre-selections, can at least pay tribute to him with a few lines, which the jinxed player earned just hitting the ball and with admirable ethics, in addition to staying against all odds supporting his province despite knowing that he would be ignored for greater tasks.