Martín Dihigo - "El Maestro"

Martín Dihigo plaque.
Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame.
Make sure that you visit and read the excellent Martín Dihigo Bio at Mop-Up Baseball.

Upon retiring from baseball Dihigo became a radio broadcaster for Cuban League Games. In 1952 he fled Cuba as a protest towards the government of Fulgencio Batista. His playing days were over, but as it turned out, he had not yet had his greatest impact on Cuban baseball. In 1952 Dihigo met someone whom he would later describe as a “smiling young man in a Prussian-blue suit” at a restaurant in Mexico City. It was Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Subsequently Dihigo gave modest financial support to the Granma expedition, which launched Fidel Castro’s over throw of Batista.

Dihigo returned to Cuba after Castro’s successful revolution in 1959. He became minister of sports under Castro’s new communist regime. He also spent time developing an interlocking system of amateur baseball leagues for all levels from grade school youths to the best adult players in the country. He then taught baseball in Matanzas, and created national standards to be established for the technical aspects of the game.

Dihigo is buried in Cruces, Cuba and there is a bust depicting Martin Dihigo at Estadio Latinoamericano in Havana, Cuba, where he is known as “El Immortal.”