In the brilliant decade of the eighties, when I was working as editor of the sports section of El Nacional -which was La Noticia’s competitor- and correspondent of the foreign news agency United Press International (UPI), I was delighted with the baseball articles with the fine pen of Heriberto Morrison.
Morrison, who is also a boxing expert, moved away from those areas to devote himself full time to writing about the Olympics and designing scientific outlines on sports policy at the Latin American and Caribbean level.
His professional profile is extensive. In this work it should not be forgotten that his book Facts and Feats of Dominican Players in the Major Leagues is in the Library of Congress of the United States. It was the first of its kind written by a Dominican sportswriter and accepted -by decision of a jury- as an official text with a registration number.
Legislación Deportiva Dominicana y Estudio Comparado is one of the most transcendental works in the sports bibliography of Latin America and the Caribbean that borders on the scientific aspects of sports.
This work was the reason for Morrison to be hired by the prestigious Editorial Española Océano. He was hired as an exponent of the history of sports in the Encyclopedia of the Dominican Republic.
He has also written several books on sports policy, based on that subject because of its innovative nature in our country. Some of these works are consulted abroad.
In one of his books, concerning the age of athletes, he makes a scientific evaluation… he analyzes it based on talent, physical, chronological and biological attitude. He also analyzes the doping of athletes.
Likewise, in the public administration, he spent six years as Technical Vice-Minister; four years as General Director of Sports; four years as Director of the General Plan of the Ministry of Sports and the same amount of time as Chief of Cabinet of the same state organ.
When I was a high school student, I read the following concept, written by the renowned American intellectual of Hungarian origin Georges Politzer: “Theory is the knowledge of the things we want to achieve. Practice is the accomplished fact.”
As a sports scientist, Morrison has put his knowledge into practice… therein lies his great legacy also as a (technical) official of the Ministry of Sports.
Synthesis: The truth always floats. We cannot deny the clear contributions that Heriberto Morrison has left us in favor of the development of sport.
May those great contributions not remain in the obscurity of national sports history!
