PUERTO Rican boxer Miguel Cotto was at the Tavern on the Green Wednesday holding a lunchtime press conference to announce his December bout with Carlos Quintana. The two unbeaten fighters will meet for the WBA welterweight championship in Atlantic City.
It will be Cotto’s first fight at 147 pounds after winning and defending the WBO title at 140 pounds six times. He is a hero in Puerto Rico, representing his people in the ring the way Felix “Tito” Trinidad once did.
But boxing isn’t the only sport Cotto follows. This is October and in Puerto Rico, baseball is followed as much as it is in the States. Asked if he had a favorite baseball player, Cotta didn’t hesitate. He has two actually, Puerto Rican natives Carlos Delgado and Carlos Beltran. That makes Cotto a fan of the Mets, who entered Game 2 of the NLDS against the Dodgers last night at Shea. For nearly 10 minutes on Wednesday, Cotto, who is intelligent, articulate and thoughtful, spoke about Beltran, Delgado and the Mets, and all but predicted who the hero of Game 1 would be.
“Beltran, his bat can be cold sometimes,” Cotto said using the English he is rapidly learning. “Delgado, his bat is hot. They have good chemistry together and they work hard to be good. But Delgado, he has a hot bat. He’ll do good.”
A few hours later, Delgado pounded out four hits, including a solo home run in the fourth inning and a go-ahead run-scoring single in the seventh to power the Mets to a 6-5 victory in Game 1. “Hot bat,” indeed.
To know Cotto is to understand he is a student of his sport. He trains, he studies, he game plans, then he executes. That’s why the native of Caguas, Puerto Rico, is unbeaten in 27 fights with 22 knockouts and why he admires Beltran and Delgado. Not just because they are fellow Puerto Ricans. But they use their minds as much as their skills to defeat the opposition. “You can see them thinking when they play,” Cotto said.
Mets outfielder Cliff Floyd said much the same yesterday before Game 2. He talked about how Delgado and Beltran systematically break down a pitcher even when they’re not in the batter’s box.
“Anything the pitcher is doing, they’re watching,” Floyd said. “I’ve seen some of my at-bats (on video) where the cameraman showed the dugout and I’ll be drinking water and eating seeds or whatever, and (Delgado) and these guys are staring at the pitcher. These guys are in tune to what’s going on every single pitch so they can figure out what this (pitcher) has got. You have to have discipline if you know what’s coming or have an idea what’s coming. These guys are really good at that, man. They really know exactly what’s going on with these pitches.”
Cotto would have liked nothing better than to be at Shea for Game 1, but it’s time to begin training for his upcoming fight against Quintana, who is also an unbeaten Puerto Rican looking for recognition. “It has been a long time since Puerto Rico has had this big of a fight,” Cotto said. “The people want to see if I can do at 147 pounds what I’ve done at 140.”
The people of Puerto Rico also want to see whether Delgado and Beltran can lead the Mets to a World Series. It might be a stretch to say the Mets are Puerto Rico’s team, but clearly the island will be watching the fortunes of two of its more popular players.