Mourning invaded Lagunero baseball this afternoon, when the death of American Rommel Canada, one of the most beloved and remembered baseball players in the history of the Laguna Union Cotton Growers, was announced.
Carmen Amanda Canada, daughter of the remembered left-handed slugger, regretfully confirmed the information that her father left to play for the Celestial Diamond. “It is with great sadness that I inform you that my father passed away. I am making preparations for his funeral and I wanted him to know the news directly from me, ”Carmen wrote from Washington, United States, through an instant messaging system. Rommel William Canada died at his home in Philadelphia, United States, at the age of 74.
From 1974 to 1977, Rommel wore the Unión Laguna uniform, with which he achieved the status of one of the best left-handed hitters in the Mexican League; In his career with the Lagunera organization, he hit 79 home runs, which places him as the second foreigner with the most home runs in franchise history and the third player in that statistic. His professional baseball career began in 1966, when he was selected in the amateur draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers, with whom he rose through their minor league system and kept playing even when he signed a contract with the Montreal Expos.
In 1972 he played for the first time in Mexico, with the Saraperos de Saltillo, to arrive in 1974 at Unión Laguna and it did not take him long to become an idol, because in each of the four seasons he played for the Laguna team, he did not come down from . 300 in his batting average. He hit 22 home runs in the 1974 and 1976 seasons, hovering around 80 RBIs and 30 stolen bases in each of the years he played at La Laguna.
They were years of glory for Unión Laguna, since the team reached the Final Series in 1974 and 1976, falling both times against the Red Devils of Mexico, although in the ’74 playoffs, against Saltillo, Rommel hit a panoramic home run at the Rosa Laguna stadium, so monumental that some fans claim that “the ball has not yet fallen”.
In four seasons with Unión Laguna, Rommel Canada had the particularity of playing in each of the Laguna team’s houses, since in 1974 they played in Gómez Palacio, the 1975 season they had the Revolution baseball stadium as their home and from In 1976, the Algodoneros moved to the Superior stadium, popularly known as “Mecano”, in all of them they highlighted the power and charisma of the prodigious left-handed striker. Rest in peace, Rommel William Canada.
