Bradford: Diamond comes full circle in Lowell’s life journey

Excerpts from Mike Lowell and Primer-pal Rob Bradford’s new book...Deep Drive: A Long Journey to Finding the Champion Within. Good stuff.

After the 1-0 win, the Puerto Rican team was getting ready to load onto its bus when Fidel Castro requested to shake the hands of all the players in his private box. One Puerto Rican player, my father, chose to wait behind for the rest of his team on the bus. He was not about to acknowledge the man who spearheaded a government that persecuted my father’s family and friends and committed unspeakable atrocities. Shaking the hand of this man would have been another black cloud among the memories my father’s family were so desperately trying to put behind them.

That refusal to shake Castro’s hand has always stayed with me. My father stood up for what he believed in, and because of it I have always tried to do the same.

Dad got another crack at exacting a measure of revenge against Castro in ’72 when he went back to Cuba to pitch in a tournament called, ironically enough, the Friendly Series. This time my father went face-to-face against his former countrymen, the Cuban National Team. He went seven innings, leaving with a 5-1 lead, having scored the fifth run to complement his extraordinary pitching performance. That final run would prove to be the winning run in what ended up as a 5-4 Puerto Rico victory. My father had become the first Cuban to ever come back and beat the Cuban National Team.