Today we propose in our subject on San Antonio de los Baños’ sports history, an athlete who despite not being born in this municipality, became a true idol for lovers of baseball. We refer to Julio Moreno González, known as "El Jiquí".
Julio Moreno González, immortalized with the nickname "Jiquí", was born in the city of Güines, former province of Havana, on January 28th, 1921. From 1939 to 1944 he played with the team ‘’Círculo de Artesanos’’ of San Antonio de los Baños, in the tournaments of the Cuba ‘s National Amateurs League. Moreno performed all kinds of feats in the Cuban amateur baseball during the first part of the 1940s. He gave a pennant to Ariguanabo in 1944 after finishing with a record of 26 wins and 3 losses.
Moreno won 20 games again in 1943, considered the best year of amateur baseball in Cuba. He gave a match without a hit or run to ‘’El Atlético’’ of Santiago de Las Vegas on March 19, 1944 and almost three weeks later, imposed a mark, later surpassed by Evelio Hernandez, striking out 21 batters of the ‘’Vedado Tennis Club’’ on April 9. The historic meeting ended 5-0 and Moreno contributed with a home run.
Despite receiving tempting offers from the the Giants of New York, "Jiquí" preferred to debut as a professional in Mexico, wearing the Veracruz’ uniform, with a record of 14 and 10 in 1945. Eleven years later he returned to Mexico and remained there until 1966.
In the season (1944-45) made debut in the Cuban League with ‘’Marianao’’ until 1948. Later he played with ‘’Cienfuegos’’ (1948-49). In 1950-51 he joined the ‘’Club Habana’’ until the season (1955-56), passing later to Cienfuegos in 1956-57 with a record of 1-3 and 2.95 clean races. After three years of absence, he played with ‘’Habana’’ in the last championship held in Cuba (1960-61) and was the leader in clean race. During his 12 years living in Cuba he scored 43-55 and struck to 405 hitters.
His best year was with ‘’Havana’’ (1951-52), where he helped the ‘’Rojos’’ win the championship with a record of 7-4 and 42 struck in 20 games. Moreno finished his 4-year career with ‘’Havana’’ (18 wins against 22 losses in 73 games). After finishing his career in the ‘’Major Leagues’’, he served as a practice pitcher for the Detroit Tigers when they won World Series, 1968. He died in the city of Miami on January 2th, 1987.
