MIAMI, Oct. 24 Twenty blocks west, at the outer fringe of the area known as "Little Havana," things are no different at the famous Cuban restaurant Versailles. Out front, by the take-out window, the mailman paused this afternoon to discuss the three-run homer Florida's Moises Alou hit Thursday night to give the Marlins a third victory over the Cleveland Indians in the World Series, bringing them home one game from the title.
"We in the media talk about how this World Series doesn't have that much impact or interest in the United States," said Jaime Jarrin, who has broadcast 18 World Series for CBS's Spanish-language radio stations, and can be heard on 365 different affiliates. "What we need to understand is that among the Spanish-speaking people here, and outside the United States, this has been a great series, a very important series."
Twenty-five years after Roberto Clemente -- the Hall of Fame Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder from Puerto Rico and a standard-bearer for Latin American players in major league baseball -- died in a plane crash, one in five players in the major leagues is Latino.
But nowhere has the impact of the increasing numbers of Latin Americans in baseball been more visible than in this postseason, and World Series, in which the Latin players -- eight with the Marlins, five with the Indians -- have been, by and large, the games' biggest stars.
Dominican-born Tony Fernandez of the Indians -- who likened this postseason to a "Latin American carnival" -- gave Cleveland a 1-0 pennant-clinching victory over the Baltimore Orioles in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series. A three-run homer by Alou -- also of the Dominican Republic -- helped the Marlins win Game 5 of the World Series Thursday night in Cleveland. Puerto Rican catcher Sandy Alomar Jr.'s 19 postseason runs batted in are an all-time record.
"This is what the Latin community is talking about," said Lazaro Marques, as he sold Marlins T-shirts out of the trunk of his black 1979 Oldsmobile at the intersection of Calle Ocho -- 8th Street -- and SW 37th Avenue. "It's a big deal with a lot of players from a lot countries and everybody's getting involved. And here, everyone wants to talk about Livan."
Just last week, the traffic stopped at this intersection when Livan Hernandez, the 22-year-old, Cuban-born Marlins pitcher, arrived in his silver Mercedes-Benz for a late lunch. Hernandez has been the focus of the Cuban community here, a kid who has gone from a chubby defector overwhelmed by the world of McDonald's and Domino's pizza to the most valuable player in the National League Championship Series and a folk hero.
When he appeared in Cleveland earlier this week to present the Roberto Clemente Award (for best representing baseball on and off the field) to Baltimore's Eric Davis, Luis Clemente -- Roberto's son -- looked at the strong Latino presence on the biggest stage of this game that his late father so loved and threw open his arms as if he wanted to embrace it.
"I'm sure my father would have been proud of [Cleveland's] Sandy Alomar, and proud to see the success of Livan Hernandez," Clemente said. "He would have been proud of the number of Latino players, which is very significant, and they are really giving a lot to the game."
Should the Indians win the World Series, Alomar Jr. is the favorite to be named the World Series MVP. Should the Marlins win, the award (barring a major impact by another player in Games 6 and 7) likely will go to Hernandez, for his two pitching victories, or to Alou, whose heroics at the plate have been crucial for Florida. Alou, like Alomar Jr., is a second-generation Latin American ballplayer. His father, Felipe Alou, and two uncles played major league baseball, and Felipe now manages the Montreal Expos.
The memorable images of this postseason are not merely limited to home runs and clutch strikeouts. At the start of the NLCS here two weeks ago, Alex Fernandez -- the Cuban-American Marlins pitcher who had yet, at that point, to discover his rotator cuff was torn -- conducted his news conference in Spanish and English out of personal courtesy for the Spanish-language media outlets that are covering baseball this October.
In Thursday night's Game 5 in Cleveland, when Hernandez was struggling in an early inning, Bobby Bonilla (Puerto Rican) trotted over to the mound from third base to calm the rookie in Spanish. Before that game, in the Cleveland dugout, Gold Glove shortstop Omar Vizquel (Venezuelan) held court with a small knot of Venezuelan journalists who had come to chronicle his exploits. Across the field, Florida's Edgar Renteria -- the first player from Colombia to make the major leagues -- asked Alex Fernandez if he thought Fidel Castro would allow that night's game to be broadcast, unblocked, in Cuba, so that Hernandez's countrymen could see him pitch.
"Teams are dedicating themselves more to looking for talent in Latin America," said Tony Perez (Cuban), a former player and now a special assistant to Marlins General Manager Dave Dombrowski. "There is a lot more respect nowadays for Latin players. That was what we wanted and it is what is happening now. And what you see here is this is the series with the most Latin flavor I have seen."
A big part of that has been the impact of South Florida's Marlins, a fifth-year expansion club that has made an intense commitment to marketing their product to the strong Latin American community here. When the Marlins added approximately $89 million to their payroll last offseason, they made a point of signing free agents Bonilla, Alex Fernandez and Alou.
As a result, Pro Player Stadium, the Marlins' home park, generally houses a fan base that is diverse enough to make an instant impression. "It's like the population of South Florida," Perez said.
"In this park, there are always Latino fans." There also are concession stands to feed those fans -- stands that serve not only hot dogs and beer and peanuts, but also black beans and rice, Cuban sandwiches, plantains (fried bananas) and Colombian pastries called arepas.
"You really feel a community here," Hernandez said through a translator. "There is a lot of support among the Latino players and among the people of Miami."
Hernandez should know. People in Little Havana still are talking about the day he stopped traffic -- literally -- simply by arriving at Versailles for lunch. And Thursday night, after he won Game 5 of the World Series, more than 300 people streamed into Versailles to celebrate his triumph with Cuban coffee and flan.
"I can't remember the last time I felt this kind of electricity on the streets," said Felipe Valls Jr., the restaurant's owner. "All people want to talk about here is baseball."
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