Rolando Macías

Rolando Macías Rodríguez

• Born July 25, 1941 in San Fernando de Camarones, Cienfuegos Cuba

Rolando Macías was a Cuban pitcher of the 1960s and 1970s.

Macías first showed up among the league leaders in 1966-1967 with Las Villas. He won 10 games to tie Rigoberto Betancourt for the Cuban Serie Nacional lead. He also led in hits allowed (87) and tied Roberto Valdés and Aquino Abreu for the most starts (15). He won 17 games for the Azucareros in 1968-1969 to tie Santiago Mederos for the league lead. He won 14 in a row, a record that would not be matched until José Ibar 29 years later and would not be broken until Yulieski González 39 years later. He went 6-0 in 1969-1970 to pace the Serie Nacional in winning percentage. In the 1970 Serie 10 Millones, he helped pitch Las Villas to the title with a league-best 0.69 ERA. His only other time on the leaderboard was in 1974-1975 when he plunked 7 batters for the Azucareros to pace the circuit.

In the 1969 Amateur World Series, Rolando had a 1-0, 2.20 record for the Cuban national team as they won the Gold Medal. Macías went 2-0 with a team-best 0.59 ERA for Cuba in the 1971 Pan American Games; he tied José Antonio Huelga for the most wins as Cuba got another Gold. Rolando ended his international career with a 2.70 ERA and no decisions in the 1971 Amateur World Series; Cuba got a third Gold.

Overall, Macías was 110-65 with a 2.17 ERA and .227 opponent average in 288 games in Cuba (192 starts, 89 of them complete). He struck out 801 and walked 387 in 1,551 innings. As of 2010, he was 8th in Castro-era Cuban history in ERA behind Huelga, Roberto Valdés, Manuel Hurtado, Juan Pérez Pérez, Walfrido Ruiz, Santiago Mederos and Julio Rojo, Jr..

Sources: 2005 Guia Official de Beisbol, A History of Cuban Baseball by Peter Bjarkman