Danger a way of off-season life for Venezuelan players
www.bayarea.com Posted on Wed, Feb. 26, 2003 By GORDON WITTENMYER Saint Paul Pioneer Press
FORT MYERS, Fla. - Gasoline was so scarce that Johan Santana once traded shifts with relatives for eight days waiting in line at a gas station that had no gas but told customers the tanker truck was due any day.
The fuel was so valuable that once he decided to buy some on the black market and paid 30 times the government rate, he sped home as quickly as possible with his 195 liters out of fear he would be robbed, or worse.
"Just carrying gas in your car is dangerous," the Minnesota Twins pitcher said. "I knew I was in danger the whole time. But you have no choice."
That kind of danger became a way of life this winter for the major leaguers and minor leaguers who make their year-round homes in their native Venezuela - the South American political hot spot, where anti-government protesters have been killed and a nearly 3-month-old general strike by business owners threatens to destroy the economy.
"It's scary," said Twins second baseman Luis Rivas, whose hometown of LaGuaira is just outside the Venezuelan capital, and epicenter of unrest, Caracas. He now lives several hours away but has friends and family near the capital.
"We couldn't do nothing," Rivas said. "You never know what's going to happen_something bad. You have to be in your home."
Santana, Rivas and pitcher Juan Rincon, who lives in the oil-rich region around Lake Maracaibo, spent much of their offseasons as virtual shut-ins, avoiding the streets except as necessary to make discreet purchases of gasoline or to drive to Caracas for visa applications or to get to the airport to fly to Florida for spring training.
"It's a nightmare," Rivas said.
The cause of the upheaval is strong-arm President Hugo Chavez, an ally of Cuba's Fidel Castro who is trying to take greater control of what has been a representative government. As anger among the private business powers grew in the tropical nation made prosperous by oil, nationwide business shutdowns began - a one-day strike in November and then another on Dec. 2 that has yet to be lifted.
JOBLESS AND DESPERATE
The strike has put people across the country out of work, resulted in countless protests, most visibly_and deadly_in Caracas, and filled the streets of Venezuela with growing numbers of people, many with growing desperation.
"Every time you step out of your home, you're in danger," Rincon said. "People aren't working. A lot of people were fired from the petroleum plants. The malls have been closed for almost a month.
"People in the streets might think you have money. I'm lucky in my hometown (of 4 million people); not too many people know me."
Many banks are open for only a few hours daily and no longer operate a currency exchange program because of the wildly fluctuating value of the Bolivar, Venezuela's currency. The players protect their U.S. wages and bonuses with base accounts in this country, transferring funds to Venezuelan accounts as needed.
Other businesses also operate within strictly limited hours and are starting to suffer supply shortages, Rincon said. Makers of soft drinks, beer and other products have shut down.
And with the gas shortage, police cars are becoming an increasingly rare sight, along with other emergency vehicles such as ambulances.
"We've never been through this before," Rincon said.
And the Twins thought contraction was tough to survive.
"There was a lot of concern," Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire said. "You throw the baseball stuff out the window. It comes down to their lives. You have guys getting robbed for gas, people getting taken out of their cars and beaten."
As recently as 1991, economic reforms in Venezuela after oil prices dropped resulted in widespread protests, with hundreds killed. And the government endured two attempted coups in 1992.
But no political or economic crisis in the lifetimes of these early-20-something Twins has lasted this long or affected their lives so personally_and never has it canceled their winter baseball season.
BASEBALL SEASON CANCELED
With the start of the Dec. 2 strike came the end of the Venezuelan winter league. Santana was due to start pitching for his team Dec. 4. Rivas managed to play one game before the strike. And Rincon started early because he anticipated a possible strike but still got in only 11 innings before the shutdown.
Rincon, who had access to workout facilities and players to throw to near his home, has appeared strong in the early part of camp. Santana, who didn't throw all winter, brought a lingering hamstring pull from a late-December attempt at conditioning. Rivas didn't practice much and put on five to 10 pounds during the forced break.
"I'm glad I took some rest," Santana said. "But now I've got to start all over again."
Said Rivas: "You can tell the difference. It's going to be hard. But I got here early (by about a week) to start, and I don't think it's going to be a problem."
If anything, the biggest problem for the Venezuelan players, once Major League Baseball intervened to make special arrangements for teams to obtain their players' visas, also was the source of their biggest relief: Leaving behind their country_and their loved ones.
"I still worry," Santana said. "I'm glad I'm here, because I need to play. But I'm still worried because my family and friends are there. It's not easy to be here and think about friends there and the whole situation going on right now."
Rivas has a sister and grandmother living near Caracas.
"I wanted to leave, but sometimes I wanted to stay with my family," he said.
For whatever might have been lost in conditioning and practice time, the Twins were fortunate. None of their players from Venezuela, nor the handful of U.S. coaches and players sent there for winter league ball, was directly involved in any of the violence. No one was robbed or hurt.
And, so far, the harrowing offseason hasn't made them start house hunting in the United States.
"Still, I love my country," Santana said. "That's where I'm from. My family's all there. As long as I can, I'll stay there, and we'll see how it goes.
"Hopefully, everything will change, and it will get back to normal."