Cuban Baseball on the downside
The country that once produced the first ever
Latino player in the US professional leagues,
Cuba, which was the first ever country to
be introduced to the game of baseball
by the United States in the 1860s and until
1961 had more players in the Major Leagues
than any other Latinamerican country,
has really downsize their baseball
program.
By Amaury Pi-González
In Cuba players make the equivalent of $40
per month to play baseball. They do not have
the freedom to travel outside Cuba, unless they
are participating in international competition.
The exodus of many Cubans continue, like
that of young infielder Yuniesky Betancourt,
whom I recently interviewed in Arizona for the
Seattle Mariners Magazine. Yuniesky is playing
with the San Antonio Missions (AA)for the
Mariners organization.
According to Forbes Magazine who knows the
economy of the world as good as anybody
Cuba’s dictator Fidel Castro is one of the
richest men in this continent. However, the
concentration of wealth in Cuba is with….
Fidel Castro and nobody else. For example,
remember when you buy the most famous
cigar in the world Cohiba, every penny goes
to Castro’s pockets, none to the people of
Cuba and that is just one “business”for Fidel.
Years ago an attorney in Miami told me
as I presented to him the deed of my property
in Havana for review and evaluation
(property that my deceased parents left me
as the solely trustee)that it could have a worth
in the millions of dollars. One property in
Havana within 3 or 4 miles of the center
of the city the other one is in Rio Verde a
beatiful area outside of Havana(like 45 minute
drive). According to current law Cubans
that are American citizens that had their
properties confiscated illegaly by the Castro
government could receive their property
back once Castro’s system capitalizes.
Above is the same process that took place
in Nicaragua after once “Presidente”Daniel
Ortega, a communist, confiscated many
properties, including those of famous
Orioles pitcher Dennis MartÃnez and world
boxing champion Alexis Arguello, both whom
I know and have spoken with them about
this. But once Ortega was thrown out of office
they got their properties back. By the way,
Venezeula’s Hugo Chávez is Castros biggest
allied in Latinamerica and a guy that is
tending more and more to the left and
reminds me of Fidel Castro at the start
of the revolution in Cuba.
But it might take many of the Cubans who
left the island since the 60s to go back and
rebuilt the country, specially their baseball
program which is not the same anymore and
more and more players are so discontent
that continue to risks their lives escaping
in homemade crafts, dingies,rafts looking
for Freedom to reach the US where
players are well represented, have a Union
and according to recent MLB statistics
have an average salary of $2.6 million
per year.
Idealism is a beautiful thing. When I was a
teenager in Cuba I work as a volunteer for
Castro like many of us Cubans who then
realized that he was not going to have a
Free Cuba for all the Cubans. The exodus
started towards the US and they are still
coming. My dream was to be an Architect,
and my fantasy to be a baseball play by
play man, as I used to listen in the patio
of my house in Havana to Felo RamÃrez
the 84 year old Spanish play by play
Voice of the Florida Marlins today and
since 1993. Little I knew that in 1998 I was
going to be working next to Felo during
the 1998 NLCS for the ESPN Spanish
radio network for the US and Latinamerica.
Is the USA a great country or what ?
Once I was introduced at my school
in Cuba by one of Cuba’s most successful architects, like a “career day”. I learned years
later he also left Cuba and since then he
retired and is living in the Florida Keys.
The baseball programs of Cuba today are
nothing like in the 1970s when Cuba was
supported to the tune of $5 billion per
year by Castro;s “sugar daddy”the old
Soviet Union. But since the Soviet Union
collapse, you can credit Reagan or Pope John Paul II or just simply that Soviets could not compete
at the same time militarily and economically
with the US. In other words, the US could build
weapons and refrigerators and cars at the
same time while the Soviets could only build
weapons. We won that one.
So today Cuba is a country of intellectuals,
just about everybody in Cuba can read and
write, they can talk to you for hours about
the French Revolution, Tolstoy War and Peace,
as well as why they call third base the
“hot corner”. Cubans are a happy and
playful people that love baseball as much
as their music their politics and yes, their
food. But baseball is not the same anymore,
the moral of players in Cuba is at an old
time low. They know there is no advancement,
if you are very good Fidel might buy you a
car and a modest home if you are no good
then you work for the revolution and that is
basically “gratis”(free).
When you see a demostration in Cuba of
1 million people in the streets remember
this is never spontaneus, it is all organized
by the Castro government and If they knock
on your door and they tell you to be at
a certain location and give you a Cuban
flag to take to the demostration…you better
do it or next time they knock on your door
they will take you away and put you in
a mental institution, because you are
an “undesirable”.
Remember Elián González ? His mother
died so he can leave Cuba, then we turned
him back to his dad in Cuba ? At his birthday
party recently Fidel Castro showed up and
they built a statue to Elián, the make him
a heroe. Elián was a 9 year old kid ! what
do kids at that age know about the
communist, proletarian or capitalistic
systems ? Oh, that is Cuba today, believe
me.They exploit everybody to keep Castro
in power.
Ironically the game of baseball that is
one of of the great passions for all of
us that were born in that beautiful place
that once Christopher Columbus upon
it’s discovery in 1492 said” “esta es la
tierra más bella que ojos humanos han
visto” (this is the most beautiful land that
human eyes have ever seen) that same
land has seen a great reduction in their
baseball talent. There is somebody to
blame here, no it is not Eisenhower,
Kennedy,Nixon or Bush it is Fidel Castro
who for over 40 years has ruled and
jailed dissidents and today has one of the
worse Human Rights records in the
world. Why can Fidel have open elections?
Because he knows you cannot put the
‘toothpaste back in the tube.
The good news: When Cuba changes for the
better, and it will. Cuban players will develop
and Cuban players will be as prolific as
Dominican players are today in the Majors.
Do not be surprised(when Cuba is really
free and democratic)that a MLB franchise
will move to Havana, just 90 miles from
Miami.
Oh would I love to see that….anybody wants
to come along ? There was once the Cuban
Sugar Kings in the International League, so
there is a precedent, but this time with
No Castro it would be a Major League Franchise,
like my buddies say in Miami:
No Castro…No Problem.
I will be having a real Cuban Daiquirà with
the warm breezes of the Caribbean, listening
to one of my favorite old Celia Cruz’s songs
and wearing a white Guayabera.
Ay Caramba !!!!!
——–
0 comments
Amaury, this is not a political blog. I suppose you blame Janet Reno’s taking of Elian Gonzalez for Barry Bonds’ steroid problems, too.
No, I do not blame Janet Reno, I blame Fidel
Castro for not letting Cubans travel freely
therefore according to Amnesty International
(which is considered a middle of the road fair
organization)over 100,000 Cubans have
perished trying to escape the island since
Castro declared himself a Marxist-Leninist,
and my article was regarding Cuban baseball
and the reason they are suffering in their
programs is because they do not get the
finantial support they once got from the
Soviet Union.
Thanks for your opinion, thanks we can do
that in this country in Cuba if your opinion
is not that of Fidel’s you are in jail in no time.
Best wishes.
Cordially,
Amaury Pi-González
Amaury,
How even handed of you to not blame the American govt.’s economic sanctions on Cuba at all in contributing to the suffering of the Cuban people.
-Mike E.
You say that Castro organizes his own rallies, tells folks where to be, passes out flags, and if you don’t agree, you’re sent away. Sounds kind of like the Bush campaign during the last election making sure that those that attended his rallies were of the right political(and religious) point of view.
Here’s hoping that Castro goes down during a Democratic administration…you and Elian Gonzalez’ “Drama Queen” cousin in Miami aren’t going to know what to do.
Mike,
I believe the blockade should be lifted, but
Castro has said many times he doesn’t
need American help. Yes, and I have 3 heads !
Thanks for your response.
Saludos,
Amaury
In Cuba people don’t have a choice, their
elections is among the 1,000 or so memebers
of the National Communist Party and they
get Castro elected with 100% of the vote.
With all our problems here in the USA we
are not even close to that stage yet, although
I admit we need better leaders, but then
again we also need better pitchers.
Thanks for your response, that is what the
USA is all about different opinions. CANNOT
DO THIS IN CUBA MY FRIEND !
Take care,
Amaury
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