The Hottest Trend of 2018? Blinky Guzman Jerseys
By Bob McShaughnammons, CBA Today
A construction crew works through the blustery Rocky Mountain night, removing all traces and remnants of Electronic Arts logos from the ballpark after the recent Microtransaction Meltdown. But the Denver Wolves team shop cross from the E.A. Dome is an even more frantic hive of activity the following morning. Hardy ticket holders are lined up for two blocks outside, braving bitter winds and needle-sharp snow flurries as Wolves staffers deliver hand warmers and hot chocolate to keep the fans alive in these bone-numbing temperatures. The simple question is: Why? Why would anybody subject themselves to this surreal and physically painful ordeal?
A breathless store clerk emerges from the back toting a large cardboard shipping box. He carefully slices the top open and answers our query with two simple words: Blinky jerseys.
Jose “Blinky” Guzman, the CBA’s $79 million man, has officially arrived in Denver. Wolves fans immediately celebrated the free agent signing of the imposing, 27 year old right-handed ace. His limitless possibilities on the mound are the stuff of baseball dreams. The home and away Guzman jerseys are flying off the shelves as fast as they are placed there. The grey, pinstriped #45 road jerseys look quite imposing, and the pristine home whites gleam like freshly fallen snow.
Blinky’s explanation about how he chose this number is an even shorter tale than the very one happening now in front of us. Why #45, we asked?
“Pedro,” he says as a smile crosses his handsome face. “Pedro, man.”
Guzman grew up in San Pedro de Macoris in the Dominican Republic, a humble city of less than 200,000 residents that is also an inexplicable motherlode of top baseball talent.
“Sosa…Cano…Soriano,” lists Blinky, proudly keeping track as he tallies the names of greats from his hometown. “One problem, though,” he adds, a grave expression overcoming his face. Then he breaks into a broad smile. “No pitchers!”
And he’s right. Despite a lengthy register of successful major league sluggers, there are no true pitching heroes from San Pedro de Macoris. At least there weren’t…until now.
“Pedro (Martinez) grew up an hour and a half west of my home, down the beach in Manoguayabo,” says Guzman. “At first I thought I would be a hitter too. Everyone thinks that here. But when I was six years old, a boa constrictor got hold of our dog in the back yard. He coiled up and I didn’t know what to do, so I picked up the first thing I could—an orange. I wasn’t even thinking, I just wound up and threw it as hard as I could at that snake. I hit him in the eye. Boom. Dead.”
Guzman pauses reflectively for a moment, before returning to the story.
“It was pretty gross, actually,” he said. “Boa eyeball and orange pulp all over the place. But I saved our dog. That’s when my papi came running out of the house. He saw the whole thing. He made me stand right where I was while he measured from the snake to me.”
Guzman’s face lights up yet again.
“Sixty feet, six inches,” he says slowly with an earnest grin. “I swear to god.”
From that moment, it was clear that Blinky Guzman was born to be a pitcher. His father made the three hour round trip with his son to watch a young Pedro Martinez pitch the very next day…a trip they made together many times, before Pedro moved on to bigger and better things.
“Pedro’s my guy,” says Guzman. “That’s it. It’s an honor and a privilege to step on a mound, any mound, and wear 45 like Pedro. It’s like an homage to my home and my family and the life that made me,” he says. “Plus they won’t let me wear these on the mound,” he adds, sliding up a pant leg to reveal custom made, size 15 boots crafted from gleaming, polished boa constrictor snakeskin.
