I would swear that few of you have heard of Onesimo Balelo Jr. He is not the president, congressman or senator of any country, nor an actor in arthouse films who has escaped them, nor an obscure Nobel Prize winner in Literature, nor the CEO of a Silicon Valley technology company, nor the founder of an NGO, nor a member of the Council of the Judiciary nor the mediator between Junts and the PSOE. But depending on how you look at it, he is today the most important man in the world.
Onesimo Nez Balelo is the son of a Portuguese fisherman from Madeira in whose hands is the crucial decision that has fascinated the world of sports in North America, Japan and part of the Caribbean and Latin America: what will be the next team of Shohei Ohtani, the Babe Ruth of the 21st century, the 29-year-old Japanese man with the body of a Marvel superhero and the joy of a child, who on the same day can throw the ball from the mound at 160 kilometers per hour and send it into the stratosphere at 180, more than the speed permitted on many sections of German motorways. (Note: in baseball it is unusual for the same player to be the pitcher and the batter).
In the Major Leagues, one becomes a free agent when he or she completes six years of contract with the same club, or the organization terminates his or her services beforehand. Ohtani joined the Anaheim Angels, the team from California’s Orange County, in 2017 (with which he has twice won the MVP title, but has never participated in the playoffs), and now faces the decision of which will be his next destination: the Los Angeles Dodgers, so he wouldn’t have to pack his bags or change his address? The almighty Yankees? A classic like the Boston Red Sox or the Chicago Cubs? The Mets, whose owner is flush with money? The San Francisco Giants? Maybe you’d like to change countries and join the Toronto Blue Jays? Or maybe he will prioritize loyalty and stay where he is?
Few questions have so pending in the United States since 83 million Americans, in 1980, watched the Dallas episode in which it was revealed who shot JR. All options have their pros and cons, but what is clear is that Ohtani will become very rich, with a record contract that will exceed 500 million dollars (455 million euros), typical of a sports star at the level of Michael Jordan, Maradona and Lionel Messi. And that Nez Balelo, as his agent, will influence the decision and take a very important pinch.
Balelo was born in San Diego and, at the age of thirteen, he went tuna fishing with his father on the boat (sometimes trips lasting several weeks, reaching the Ivory Coast and the Congo). On one of the trips, he exchanged a T-shirt and several bars of soap for some wood-engraved figurines, and his mother predicted a remarkable future for him as a businessman.
A good athlete, he played for the Seattle Mariners’ Vermont affiliate as a second baseman and shortstop, but his chances of making the first team were cut short when, working on a construction site to supplement his income, he suffered a ten-meter fall through the intended hole. to install an elevator, breaking his pelvis and several ribs. He had just gotten married. He never recovered the necessary level, but – a spirited and positive guy – he had the generosity of spirit to help the Venezuelan Omar Vizquel, who was his competitor for the position and did not speak a word of English (he played almost three thousand games and accumulated 2,877 hits in the Major Leagues).
Now Balelo has his office on the Avenue of Stars in Los Angeles and for many he counts more than Biden or Trump. Millions of dreams depend on him.
