The Most Unbelievable Story in Sports

before coming to america yasiya buick never had internet access had never seen a credit card was an alleged government informant and was getting paid 17 a month to be one of the best professional baseball players in cuba until 2011 when he was arrested and banned from ever playing baseball in his home country again what followed was one of the deadliest affections of any baseball player in history in order to get to america puig took a journey that lasted over a month had to pay over 1 million dollars to criminals was forced to bribe a government was held hostage by smugglers for weeks and was auctioned off by his captors for hundreds of thousands of dollars leading up to a series of incidents that freed puig from captivity resulted in a mysterious death and ripped off a deadly smuggling ring causing several real-life threats that have put yasiyo puig's life in danger ever since a year later yasiyo puig was called up to the major leagues where he had arguably the best start to a career than anybody in history and took the dodgers from a last place team to a first place team in a matter of months his aggressive and fun style of play instantly made him one of the most popular players in baseball and one of the funniest players in baseball it also made him one of the most hated players in baseball and caused him to be targeted regularly sparking some of the most violent and notorious brawls in baseball history and these altercations were not limited to his opponents reports say that one teammate threw his luggage into traffic one of his most famous teammates begged the dodgers front office to trade him one former teammate even described him as quote unquote the worst person he's ever seen play baseball and many many more stories of verbal and even physical altercations with teammates and coaches occurred while he was with the dodgers but as police career went on he slowly morphed into a player who was a clubhouse favorite known for sticking up for his teammates under any circumstance and did so very frequently however in 2020 puig was accused of crime so horrific that despite his above average play teams across the league have essentially blackballed him from playing major league baseball but why today puig and others say that this exclusion from major league baseball is unfair the accusations against him are false and that he has become the most misunderstood player in baseball [Applause] [Music] this video is brought to you by nordvpn we've all sat down to watch our favorite team and got a message that said this but luckily with nordvpn you'll never have to worry about blackouts again nordvpn allows you to safely and quickly change your ip location to basically anywhere in the world so if you want to watch a certain game tv show or movie but can't because of your location nor vpn can quickly bypass this allowing you to watch any game your heart desires no matter where you are i highly recommend nor ppn because i use it every day to watch games and on top of that it is a great way to protect you from hackers data leaks and can even increase your internet speed and now is the perfect time to sign up go to nordvpn.com baseball d e or use code baseball de to get a two year plan plus a bonus gift with a huge discount so please if you would like to support the channel click the link below and sign up for nordvpn today [Music] it is summer two thousand twelve yacia puig his girlfriend a cuban boxer and a priest who practices santeria find themselves in a rundown hotel in isla mujeres mexico they have been on the run for over a month ever since they illegally fled their home country of cuba if they are caught they will be brought home and sent to prison but currently they are facing much larger consequences they are being held against their will by a group of armed smugglers puig owes this group of smugglers 250 thousand dollars and is waiting for a man in miami to make the payment an amount of money this man does not have the smugglers are getting impatient and have told puig if the man in miami does not pay they will have his fingers cut off with a machete but the man in miami has a plan around 1am a group of armed guards will enter the hotel and stage a kidnapping that will free puig his girlfriend the boxer and the priest puig has two options either go with them and risk getting killed or stay in the hotel and leave his life in the hands of the smugglers when asked about his defection puig usually gives responses like this [Music] ultimate [Music] to this day puig will not talk about his defection because giving too many details reminds him of the trauma he experienced puts him at risk of more legal issues and exposing too many details puts him in danger of groups of people who still cause a serious threat to his life to this day the accounts of poised affection are all alleged because he himself has not publicly spoken about it they come from articles written by espn and la magazine and are based on a first-hand account of the defection that were made public through a lawsuit that sued puig for 12 million dollars based on actions he made while trying to defect from cuba nobody really knows how many times yasiya puig attempted to escape cuba but there were at least four documented failed attempts the first one was in 2009 puig was 19 years old and already at the highest level of cuban baseball he was selected to the cuban national team and was playing in the cuban national series essentially cuba's version of mlb his baseball talent made him worth tens of millions of dollars in america but in cuba he was getting paid seventeen dollars a month but in 2009 yasiyo puig was suspended from playing baseball in cuba some claim it was due to his lack of discipline missing practice showing up late or according to his childhood friend he was quote unquote just a little crazy but in a good way beer and girls beer and girls always a party according to other people in cuba and what is more likely is that this suspension was due to his first affection attempt which ended when he and two others were discovered by cuban police puig was immediately placed in an extremely difficult situation in order to be allowed to play baseball again it is likely that the cuban government offered puig the ability to become a government informant which according to a former cuban intelligence agent is a deal that most members of the cuban national baseball team have already agreed to turning people into the government can serve as a great way for athletes to get back in favor with the government after being suspended for trying to defect themselves and according to an account given in a court affidavit this is what puig began to do first by accusing two people he originally tried to escape with of human trafficking causing both of them to receive six-year prison sentences another man claims he was arrested by cuban officials soon after having a short conversation with puig he says he had no plan of helping puig escape but was sentenced to seven years in prison after we told cuban officials the man offered him a plan to leave the island in prison this man says he was tortured and starved and eventually sued puig in american court for 12 million dollars for actively working with the cuban government to torture an innocent man and soon after puig was reinstated and invited to join the national team in a tournament in the netherlands where puig was once again suspended according to some this was due to him trying to steal a pair of shoes from a dutch mall but according to most and what is more likely is that puik was caught trying to defect again while at the tournament week's second suspension basically gave him two options never played baseball again or escaped the island for good soon after pui was approached by an old friend junior despagne a cuban boxer who had been kicked from the national team for being a flight risk at the time the two were really good friends and were about to go on a journey that would free them from cuba forever however several incidents that occurred during and soon after this journey would tear the two apart cause serious legal accusations between them and put both of their lives in danger for years to come according to despanya he became friends with a man in miami who knew of puig's baseball ability and knew smuggling out of cuba would make him a ton of money this man in miami was not an experienced smuggler whatsoever he was an air conditioning repairman who was on probation for trying to steal an air conditioning unit using a fake credit card to buy 150 000 worth of beer and having a fake id using despania as a middleman he offered to organize a group of smugglers to take puig out of cuba if weak agreed to pay back all the costs of the operation and give him 20 of all future contracts he signed he promised espana over a hundred thousand dollars if he could convince puig of taking the journey puig agreed to the deal and the man in miami hired a smuggling ring in mexico to operate the defection one of these smugglers was on the run and was on florida's most wanted list for charges of grand larceny as well as aggravated assault of a police officer with a deadly weapon another was on the run for extorting a migrant family and was called one of the most important capos in the cuban american mob another one was missing a finger after being kidnapped in mexico basically these are people you don't want to mess with the man in miami promised to pay the group of smugglers 250 thousand dollars once they were able to get puy to mexico during their first attempt puig and espana were stopped when police pulled them over on their second attempt the boat never showed up on their third attempt police raided their safe house and detained them for six days on their fourth attempt they made it to sea where they were intercepted by the coast guard in between cuba and haiti where the group spent six days on a ship deck underneath a tarp with barely any food or water puig begged them to drop the group off anywhere but cuba but after six days they were returned home soon after puig de spanier and police girlfriend set out for their fifth attempt knowing that being caught again could result in serious jail time they decided to take a longer more dangerous route that was less guarded they even brought a priest from the afro-catholic religion of santeria along for good luck the priests recited prayers and sacrificed a chicken to bless the journey all four got into a car drove three hours left the car hiked for 30 hours without sleeping while hiding during the day to arrive at a pickup point that can only be reached by foot the group was picked up by the smugglers in a cigarette boat and headed towards mexico but halfway through the trip the boat ran out of gas so for an entire night the boat drifted at sea and was forced to paddle out of the way of a container ship that nearly crushed them the smugglers contacted a colleague who came to refill the boat with a 50-foot yacht and after 36 hours at sea the group arrived in mexico there the four shared a room in a rundown hotel owned by the smugglers to store migrants while they awaited payments they had gotten through the most dangerous part of the journey and seemed to be home free but quickly found out that the man in miami who promised to pay the smugglers didn't even have the money to do so so for the next three weeks yasio puig anxiously waited for the two parties to work out a deal every day the bill wasn't paid the smugglers added a tax which eventually raised the price to around four hundred thousand dollars becoming impatient the smugglers started making threats saying that they would cut twig's fingers or arms off if the bill was not paid but instead they came up with a better plan the smugglers began making calls and letting people know that they had yasiel puig ready to be brought to america and that anyone willing to step in and pay the price would be entitled to 20 of his future earnings which puig originally agreed to pay the man in miami puig had quickly gone from being a highly prized defector into a prisoner literally being auctioned off to the highest bidder the smugglers eventually found a guy who was willing to pay the 250 000 espn referred to this man as el rubio and he was the head of a smuggling ring himself but when he agreed to this deal he never actually intended on paying the price instead he colluded with the man in miami and told him to tell the smugglers that he would have the money ready shortly in order to buy more time then he told the man in miami to call puig and let him and the others know that they would hear a knock on the door at 1 am the people knocking on the door would take him and the group out of the hotel and unless they wanted to die at the hands of the smugglers who were going to be extremely upset that they were getting ripped off to leave with the man arubio hired a man who had connections to the mexican police to basically go into the hotel and forcefully remove puig and the others from the smugglers to avoid having to pay the 250 grand that night two men dressed in black entered the hotel according to despania because of a random stroke of luck the smugglers didn't even have anyone guarding the room like they usually did that night they secretly left the hotel without conflict they were immediately taken on a plane and flew to mexico city all while being guarded by at least three armed men at all times to protect them from the smuggling ring that they had just ripped off through a series of bribes the bring leader was able to get the group on flights without an id and mexican residents and within days of the escape puig was already doing workouts for major league teams and on june 28th two months after leaving cuba and before he was even able to open a u.s bank account yasio puig signed a seven year 42 million dollar contract with the los angeles dodgers 8.4 million dollars of this contract was to be taken out and divided up between the group of people who had just helped them escape yasiyapui was free and extremely rich but he just ripped off a group of extremely dangerous criminals who just illegally transported him across the gulf of mexico for free a group of people who wanted money and revenge and would seek it for years to come causing several incidents that put yasiyo puig's life in serious danger throughout his major league career weak signing was a surprise to almost everyone and most people thought that it was an extremely bad deal he had not played baseball in over a year and while auditioning for teams he refused to throw run or catch and would only take batting practice because he was so out of shape espn called this deal a bizarre overreaction a writer for baseball america said i don't know what's going on in dodger land and even one dodger scout when told about the contract said quote unquote are you out of your [ __ ] mind but puig soon proved them all wrong in june 2013 just about a year since defecting the dodgers found themselves in last place with two of their star outfielders matt kemp and carl crawford injured so even though puig was very raw they were out of options and called them up to the major leagues the dodgers did think puik had potential to be a great player but at the time he wasn't even a top 50 prospect so nobody could predict that we was about to have arguably the greatest start to a career than anybody in major league history in his first five games week already had four home runs and tied an mlb record with 10 rbis his first week of baseball became a national headline and earned him national league player of the week in his first week ever in his first month ever he won national league player of the month and became the first player in major league history to record at least 34 hits and seven home runs in his first 20 games the dodgers instantly went on a 42-8 run taking the team from last place to first place in a month and a half when most rookies get called up to the major leagues they are nervous grateful and cautious to step on anybody's toes yasio puig was the complete opposite he did not care at all because although today a ton of players including rookies play with pwig's energy and for the most part nobody has a problem with it in 2013 police personality stood out and this would cause massive physical and verbal conflicts between puig his opponents coaches and even his teammates and these conflicts which started almost immediately after his rookie year made yasiel puig go from being considered baseball's next lebron james to completely out of the league in a matter of a few seasons in 2014 we experienced several on the field and off the field incidents that really clouded his reputation that off scene simply had been arrested for reckless driving for the second time in less than a year and reports said that he came to spring training in 2014 out of shape and overweight his manager don mattingly criticized him that spring saying that he comes up with another injury every time he swings and misses and at the dodgers home opener puig was benched for being late to the ballpark a habit he was known for yasiel puig was very busy off the field he hung out with famous people went clubbing was followed by paparazzi all the time and became a tmz favorite he also gave back any way he could he started his own charity signed autographs for anyone who asked and was known for showing up to random little league practices completely unannounced to have fun and practice with the kids he did all of this even if it meant being a little late to games puig was also getting sued for 12 million dollars in the lawsuit i mentioned earlier that accused him of lying to the cuban government to get a man incarcerated and twig was still at risk of the smuggling ring who were still trying to get their money according to reports during spring training a man connected to the smuggling ring showed up to puke's hotel threatening and demanding him to pay him the money he owed this incident forced the dodgers to hire extra security for puig everywhere he went and these threats would continue throughout his career despite all of these controversies in 2014 puig had a great year and made the nl all-star team but in 2015 he started the year with a hamstring injury and this was the real beginning of puig's downfall in los angeles as i mentioned earlier puig plays with a flare to his game which some players have a huge problem with this often causes issues the best example of this is his career-long rivalry with madison bumgarner which started in 2014 after yasiyo puig had something in his eye and instead of calling time he just stood in the box and took a strike bumgarner probably didn't like this so later in the at-bat puig hit a bomb and flipped his bat and madison bumgarner hates when people do this so he told puig something in an extremely mean way and the two briefly argued later that year bum runner hit twig with a pitch then started talking more trash so puy charged the mount and had to be held back a couple years later puig grounded out to bumgarner then bumgarner stained him down and told fueg don't look at me and the two almost fought again puig later responded by wearing a t-shirt that said hashtag don't look at me the final incident happened in 2019 when puig launched a rocket off bumgarner pimped it and flipped his bat which again bumgarner absolutely hates so after the game bumgunner said quote unquote buick is a quick study it only took him seven years to learn how to hit that pitch but bumgarner wasn't the only one with a problem with puig in fact the entire giant's roster absolutely hated him in 2018 yacia puig missed a pitch right down the middle and was a little mad about it the giant's catcher nick hundley was mad that we got mad and the two started talking puig shoved him the dugouts cleared and the two teams started fighting but the giants were not the only team who had a problem with puik in 2017 nationals pitcher coda glover struck him out for the win and then told puig to go to the dugout puig thought that was rude so he did not go to the dugout and instead went to try and fight glover later that year jose gerania threw a first pitch fastball that almost hit puig who got very mad and started screaming at urania who is known for hitting batters on purpose with very little reason to do so urania later called puig a quote-unquote crybaby and even dave roberts said that puik overreacted which is really not the reaction you want to have from your own manager but this does make sense because behind the scenes puig and many of his teammates were not getting along which caused several altercations and these conflicts really started to become a problem when puig's performance started suffering in 2015 tweek spent much of the season injured and despite being an all-star the year before he was used as a bench player in the playoffs in 2016 puig was struggling so much that dodger sent him back to aaa to work on his swing but when he got to triple a puy got in more trouble for posting snapchats of him and his teammates drinking and partying after a game hilariously saying in the snapchat that he loves this team because we lost today and nobody cares but this funny snapchat was nothing compared to the controversy caused by buick in 2015 when he was investigated by mlb after an altercation at a nightclub where puig allegedly punched the bouncer after he tried to break up a fight between puig and his sister the league investigated whether or not puik hit his sister in the bar but she denied that ever happening and puig avoided suspension inside the dodgers clubhouse it seems like many people were getting tired of puig's actions especially his coaches his first manager don mattingly said that if it was up to him he disciplined puig a lot more but the organization didn't want him to dodgers hitting coach mark mcguire once confronted puig after former all-star luis gonzalez approached him during batting practice and puig completely blew him off funny enough tmz caught another interaction between fuek and gonzalez on a tmz tour bus that for some reason the two were on at the same time gonzalez said hello and puig looked like he had no idea who he was but to be fair growing up in cuba puik probably had never even seen an mlb game before coming to america and genuinely didn't know who luis gonzalez was his second manager dave roberts publicly called puygal for taking plays off referring to a play in the 2017 world series where puig dove for a ball and missed it a ball that would have been easily caught if he was playing where he was supposed to puig apparently didn't like to be told by his coaches where to play in the outfield and tore up multiple positioning cards that outfielders are supposed to keep in their pocket during games to know where to play depending on which batter is up according to an article in the la times puig was late for meetings didn't listen to coaches didn't work hard enough to avoid injuries made way too many dumb base running and throwing mistakes and teammates and coaches were getting tired of his childish ways according to one story puig once threw his batting helmet behind the dugout which set off a sprinkler system that flooded the hallway and brought the fire department to the stadium during a game when asked what his favorite memory of playing with yasio puig was corey seeger said flat out he didn't have any justin turner said that he wished pui would have worked harder and according to yahoo sports the two got into a physical fight after puig wanted to bring his entourage on the team plane in one infamous story his teammate zack grenky threw puig's luggage onto a busy street in chicago because puig was holding up the team bus unconfirmed rumors spread that grenkey wouldn't even consider re-signing with the dodgers unless they traded puik more rumor spread after former major leaguer and dad of one of week's teammates said that clayton kershaw was basically begging the dodgers to trade puig throughout his time with the team and one teammate of tweeks said flat out that wig was quote unquote the worst person he's ever met in baseball from 2015 to 2018 puig was still a productive player and batted above league average every year except one however his play had seen an obvious decline compared to his first two seasons which could have a lot to do with injuries but all the off the field issues puig was going through also could have had a real effect on his performance he was already on his third agent his house had been broken into four times since moving to los angeles and he was still dealing with threats from the smuggling ring he had yet to pay according to despanya the boxer who puig had escaped cuba with the two had had a falling out despania began working with lawyers and giving testimony to strengthen the case against puig in the lawsuit that was accusing him of wrongly turning in a man to cuban authorities this lawsuit would drag on for several years despania says that as soon as they arrived in america the entire group began receiving relentless threats usually over the phone telling them to pay up or that they were going to die one smuggler called espana's mother who lives in cuba asking for where puig lived when she told them she didn't know they responded by saying that they were going to burn down puig's house and if that she didn't tell them where he lives they were going to burn her house down too despanye obviously worried began begging puig and the others who owed the smugglers money to pay up and one man promised that he would take care of it shortly after one of the members of the smuggling ring was found dead in mexico according to despanye it is not clear whether his death had anything to do with bleak's defection but despanye says that one of the financers of the trip made it seem like he had something to do with it even though he may have been lying but even with the smuggler gone the threats did not stop one day despania was approached in traffic by a man with a gun he stuck the gun in his stomach and said to get yasiyo puy to pay and everything would be fine since the story of pweek's defection almost exclusively comes from the spanish accounts we do not know how many times spwig's life was directly threatened but it is safe to assume that if despina endured so many threats then the higher profile puig probably had just as many if not more despina decided to help the man suing puig by telling his full story because he felt slighted for not getting paid what he was promised by the man in miami and believed it gave him and his family more protection from the threats he was receiving he's also said that he believes puig eventually paid off the smuggling ring after the threats piled up despiny also says that because he told his story he believes puig paid a baseball player in cuba to tell cuban officials that the spanish brother tried to get him to flee the country despinate's brother was arrested and faced 12 years in prison because of that informant this accusation was included in the 12 million lawsuit but after several years the judge dismissed the case from federal court and puig's legal issues finally came to an end after the 2018 season the dodgers traded puig to the cincinnati reds which gave him a great opportunity to have a fresh start free of controversy however this next chapter in his career was filled with even more altercations brawls and a legal case that forced him completely out of major league baseball perhaps forever when we got to cincinnati he made it publicly clear his goal was to stay out of controversy be a good teammate and help his team win he admitted that he never worked hard in los angeles and said that that would change in cincinnati and that's exactly what happened puig was immediately a great fit with the reds a team who is known for playing with flair getting in fights and pimping every home run they hit they embraced puig's style of play and by all accounts he was a clubhouse and fan favorite in cincinnati but even though puig was loved by people inside cincinnati some of his opponents still resented him and this was clear by the numerous brawls he was involved in in june 2019 pedro strobe hit puig with a 3-0 fastball and puig it seemed like he knew it was coming he immediately threw his helmet and came after stroke the benches cleared but no punches were thrown after the game strop said quote unquote it's not a secret he's stupid he's stupid as i have nothing against him but he's stupid there is no doubt about it but by far the most notorious bra of police career didn't even really have much to do with him in april of 2019 derek dietrich hit a home run off chris archer and pulled off the pimp job of the century archer didn't like this so in his next at-bat he threw a pitch behind dietrich which was pretty obviously on purpose the reds manager came out to argue and then out of nowhere came yacio puig which started a massive standoff and after a minute or two puig tried to take on the entire pirates team by himself creating one of the greatest pictures in history but this beef was far from over throughout the year the two teams would continue to hit each other and derek dietrich would continue to hit and pimp home runs then in july tensions got even higher derek dietrich almost got hit in the head the reds manager got ejected and the reds hit a pirates player then finally in the ninth inning after yamir guerra gave up a three-run home run he decided he was tired of getting trash-talked and rushed the pirates dug out by himself then yasiel puig once again came in trying to fight every player he could and the craziest part about this was puig wasn't even on the reds anymore news broke that puig had been traded halfway through the game but for some reason the reds left him in so in his last inning ever in a reds uniform even though he technically wasn't even on the team he tried to fight the entire pirates roster he served a three-game suspension for the brawl then went to the indians where he ended the 2019 season and since then he's never played another major league game again after 2019 pui was a free agent in a unique position he was still a productive player but his off the field issues probably made a lot of teams worried he also had proved in the past that he had the potential to be a star player and probably wanted more money than most teams were willing to offer and due to teams cutting down on spending due to the shortened 2020 season puig wasn't getting the offers he wanted in july 2020 he agreed to a deal to go to the atlanta braves but the deal fell through when puig tested positive for covid ruining his chances of playing in 2020. he was good enough to play and several teams were interested in signing him he just had bad luck but going into 2021 more problems arose which ended his major league chances in the immediate futures details of a lawsuit became public that accused puig of sexual assault at a lakers game in 2018. ruika since denied these allegations and has claimed to have significant proof that will clear his name but for the time being the details are still cloudy and the lawsuit is still being pursued in the meantime puig signed a contract in mexico where he is putting up impressive numbers and even got into a small fight after getting mad at a pitcher who wasn't throwing him enough strikes week is doing everything he can to get another chance at the major league level but depending on how his current legal situation goes and the amount of off-the-field issues he's been involved with over the years there is serious reason to believe that he will never play major league baseball again but no matter what happens there is no denying that poig's career has been one of the most eventful in history and the amount of turmoil he went through just to get to america and the controversial events that occurred once he got here ensure that puig for good and for bad will always be remembered

Channel: Baseball Doesn't Exist

Views: 921,596

Rating: 4.9230342 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: YqUbqKNhGNU

Length: 31min 59sec (1919 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 08 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/dandystanley]

I like this channels videos a lot. Does a good job of painting a complete picture on players without necessarily telling you what to think about that player. It’s a fine line that this guy balances really well.

[u/granno14]

Really well done video thank you for posting :) I’m still fascinated by his career and there was a lot of good information in here. The main thing that stands out to me is his lack of awareness for keeping his body in shape. You don’t have the body of a 21 year old forever you have to put in work as you get older to keep it from falling apart. Which puig didn’t seem interested in doing. Raw talent can only take you so far

[u/[deleted]]

Blackballed? Yeah, you act like an asshole and then claim people are blackballing you when they don't want to pay you millions to put up with you. LMFAO.