Only the tears of the family surpassed the sad notes of a violin that filled the wide room of the Blandino de la Abraham Lincoln Funeral Home, where since last Tuesday the remains of Julio Lugo were veiled.
At the end of the coffin containing his lifeless body, a monitor displayed graphs of the moments he spent with the family at the house, the beach, the home and the stadium, among others. In the other a poster of his playing time with the Boston Red Sox. Leaning against the walls, dozens of floral wreaths bidding him farewell with the certainty that he will have eternal glory.
“I don’t know how we’re going to do now,” Julio Alejandro, the second of Lugo’s four children, said between sobs, who used to take him to New Horizons school early and pick him up at 2:15 in the afternoon.
At four o’clock, he accompanied the youthful center fielder to a Boca Chica stadium, where he helped with training. From there they would return at seven in the evening.
“The best man I have ever met. World’s Greatest Dad. My friend, the instructor who always advised me, ”highlighted the young player – who like Josmael, the oldest, 18 years old and also a centerfielder – seems like a replica of the late baseball player, who gained appreciation for how much they treated him for his treatment. affable and proverbial smile.
“All human beings have flaws, but I don’t think there is one better than my dad. He lived for his children. He did everything for us, ”adds Josmael.
Perennial remains in his memory the laugh that he heard over the phone from his father, his last contact.
“I was driving and I saw David Ortiz from afar,” he says about the meeting he had with “Big Papi”, a teammate in the three seasons that his father played with the Boston Red Sox.
“I went to him, we took a picture and I said ‘look daddy, I found David Ortiz.’ I sent it to him and he responded with a smile, ”he says.
The testimonies of sorrow were heard everywhere in the funeral home, from where the funeral procession left at three pm for the Memorial Garden Cemetery.
“Julio went unnoticed as simple as he was. Very humanitarian, very polite and easy to love. We are going to miss him ”, declared Ángel Rondón, his neighbor at Torre El Caney and an exceptional witness because he was with him when last Monday he felt the first symptoms of a heart attack that minutes later ended up taking his life.
The former infielder’s teammates on the Central Bank softball team showed up in uniform to say goodbye and also to give the family the jacket they wore during the exchange they held last weekend on the “Isla del Encanto ”With the Rhinos of San Juan.
Lugo could not attend because his left arm hurt and, above all, due to his commitments on Sundays in the television program “La Hora del Deporte”, produced by Héctor J. Cruz for CDN Sport, where he was pinning him in the specialized chronicle.
“Keep my jacket for me,” Ruby Vásquez recalls telling Juan Suriel, her closest friend on the set. “He was very excited, but he couldn’t make the trip. We kept it for him, but it was not to be handed over at this time ”.
Alejandro Aponte, a friend of the Lugo family since they lived several decades ago in Barrio 30 de Mayo, in Barahona, points out that Julio was very humble and familiar.
”Julio was very familiar. We are grateful for the good times we have when we share ”, declares Altagracia Lugo,“ Aunt Altagracia ”, as she used to say.
The funeral was attended by Cooperstown immortals Pedro Martínez and Vladimir Guerrero, as well as Moisés Alou, one of their mentors; the star outfielder of the Washington Nationals, Juan Soto, José Miguel Bonetti, president of the Escogido; Junior Noboa and Quilvio Veras, commissioners of Baseball; Alberto Rodríguez, Administrative Vice Minister of the Presidency, as well as personalities from the business and political world, among others.
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