In October 2020, with the presence of the mayor William Miranda Torres and the owner of the Criollos, Raul Rodriguez, a special activity was held at the Yldefonso Solá Morales in Caguas to announce the progress of the reconstruction work on the stadium, which was finally ready for the following season.
Among the special guests was the legendary former pitcher Desire of Leon, to whom the Criollos dedicated the 2020-21 season and invited to throw the first ball in the opening game held in Cayey.
Among other things, the reason was that Desiderio, who was then 96 years old, was the only living baseball player who had ties to the birth of Puerto Rico“>winter baseball in 1938 when, as a child and from the Puente de Jobos neighborhood in Guayama, he was bat charger of the Brujos de Guayama team.
Desiderio throws out the first pitch in the Criollos’ opening game of the 2020-21 season.
Then Desiderio would have a long and successful career as a pitcher in the winter league, particularly with the Criollos de Caguas in the 1950s, he had an outstanding record in the Korean War with the famous Borinqueneers of the 65th Infantry made up of Puerto Rican soldiers, He was a policeman, teacher and leader of the Double A.
But in recent years, Desiderio had achieved what veteran ballplayers call the “triple crown” of retirement: he was sick, old, and hadn’t made much money in his career, aside from working in professions — police, education — that he didn’t They gave him a pension.
Apart from the little more than $700 he received from social security, in short, his main source of income had been the funds he received monthly from the non-profit organization Baseball Assistance Team (BAT).
Founded in 1986 by a group of former major league players, its purpose is to confidentially help former players who need help.
In Puerto Rico, for 16 years, his representative was the former major league player Benigno ‘Benny’ Ayala, but he was removed from office a little over a year ago and in his place the ex-players Ivan Reyes Y Jason Perez have continued to manage the program on the Island.
“Before, I had to apply for the aid annually, but in the end I had to do it every three months,” said Desiderio, who used to receive about $500 to help pay his house rent and another $400 for additional expenses.
“But when I applied again the last time, in December, they denied me,” he said, “and they didn’t give me any explanation.”
“The only thing they told me was to go ask for coupons or apply for Plan 8 to pay the rent,” he added, “but in both places they denied me because I received more than $700 from social security.”
Last year, Desiderio was part of the group that competed with the Misla brothers to acquire the Ponce franchise in winter baseball, and was even named president of the group headed by the merchant angel lopez.
“Perhaps someone thinks that like me he was a millionaire because he wanted to buy a team, but that’s not the case,” he said. “It was just a symbolic thing to use my name.”
And now Desiderio, who lives alone in a house in Ponce and has no help from any relative, finds himself in a helpless situation.
“This month I won’t be able to pay the rent, which is $530,” he said, “and they’re going to cut off my phone if I don’t pay it by the 25th.”
“To the owner of the house that I didn’t care if she took me out of there, that I was going to sleep on the sidewalk.”
His efforts to get help from other institutions have also been unsuccessful, but Desiderio mainly attributes his current status to BAT.
“It is an organization that has more than $200 million because it receives the help of all the players now, and that is supposed to help the players in need, but for some reason, they don’t want to help me,” he said.
“And this is a situation that doesn’t even let me sleep at night.”
The author was part of the sports newsroom of El Nuevo Día from 1981 to 2008 and is the author of St-Titus, about the career of Tito Trinidad and the novel the last kamikaze, winner of the contest of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture in 2016.
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