Happy Bday To A Giant Among Baseball Writers

Today, January 10^th is the birthday of one of our feature writers, Mr. Juan Vene. We normally would not write an article on the birthday of any of our contributors, but in this case, Mr. Vene is not just a contributor, he is a giant among baseball sports writers.

Let me explain. Juan Vene will celebrate his 92^nd birthday today, a major milestone during any period, especially during one of the most destructive pandemics in our lifetime. However, if that was not enough this past October 2020 Mr. Vene accomplished the incredible task of publishing his 21,900^th article, or in other words he had been writing a daily column for 60 years. I don’t believe there are too many writers of any genre that can claim such a remarkable feat. I believe that Mr. Vene might have a World Guinness Book record.

Mr. Juan Vene was born in a poor barrio in Caracas, Venezuela on January 10, 1929. He played baseball as a child because that was the game all the kids played, but he did not know that baseball was the national sport. It was as if his contribution to the game of baseball was not as a player, but as a baseball columnist that has brought much delight to those that have had the opportunity to read his work.

Mr. Vene studied to be a newspaper reporter. However, he did not cover baseball until he convinced his editor of the newspaper, La Esfera in Caracas to allow him to cover the 1960 World Series. Juan explained that in 1959 the first Venezuelan, Luis Aparicio made it to the major leagues, and he used that as the excuse to convince his editor that more Venezuelans would probably follow, and that the newspaper should be one of the first to begin covering MLB baseball by allowing him to cover the 1960 World Series*. His editor agreed and the rest is history. Mr. Vene has not stopped writing a daily column for over 60 years and only during a recent hospital stay for an operation was that streak interrupted until he was discharged from the hospital.

We in Latino Sports salute this giant among sports writers for his professionalism, his discipline and tenacity in accomplishing this incredible task.  Today at his young age of 92 he is a testament to all future sports writers that nothing is impossible, and everything is possible if you’re a professional and have the discipline to stay focus on your desire. What is Mr. Vene’ desire? He explained he loves to make people smile with what he writes.

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•The 1960 World Series was played between the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League and the New York Yankees of the American League from October 5–13, 1960. In Game 7, Bill Mazeroski hit the series winning ninth-inning home run, the only time a winner-take-all World Series game ended with a home run. Wikipedia