A great sports story says goodbye. Photo: Inder Author: INDER

Roberto Pacheco Martinez, one of the main spokesmen of Cuban sports storytelling for several decades, said goodbye for the last time this Monday in Havana.

Considered the dean of the profession on the island, Pacheco, who turned 82 on April 17, has had a very long career on various radio stations, although most of it has been on Radio Rebelde, where he has been the voice of the national ball since 1972. .

During his time at the microphones, Roberto came up with, among other things, anthological phrases such as “Delicious!” and “Little coffee, no cigarettes and rum in moderation”, with which he animated countless matches of the national series, as well as world events, intercontinental cups and four world classics, where he talked about the victories and defeats of the Cuban national team.

That story about Omar Linares’ home run in the semi-finals of the 1999 Winnipeg Pan American Games when he said, “Put it on maestro! This is crazy, man, crazy! (…) Drop it, Linares, drop it a thousand times!” this is one of the most important traces he left in the ICRT sound archives.

Founder and habitual figure of space sportsthis leading veteran received the National Radio Award in 2018, an award also well-deserved for a career that has included participation in six Olympic Games in addition to baseball, as well as a dozen Pan American, Central American and Caribbean Games.

Pacheco, who shared the stand with other legends such as Bobby Salamanca, Eddie Martin, Hector Rodriguez or Ramon “Piti” Rivera, has done important work outside of the media since in 2000 he became President of the National Council of Peñas Deportivas, responsible for which existed for several years.

Outside of the island, Pacheco also received the Abelardo Raidy Lifetime Work Award, which is awarded by the Sports Journalists of America to public relations professionals who have amassed a remarkable curriculum, as this man, a native of today’s municipality, did. Artemis Alligator.

Villa Clara journalist José Antonio Fulgueiras wrote of him: “Roberto Pacheco is a Cuban with delicious humor from start to finish. He has a gift for popular and infectious finesse for describing players and baseball games over the microphone.

Source: Juventud Rebelde