Jim Galloway - Staff.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Tuesday, April 17, 2001
Come the Fourth of July, a group of 13-year-olds from east Cobb County plans
to doff their caps on a baseball field in communist Cuba and sing the "Star-Spangled
Banner."
The "travel" team, made up of metro Atlanta boys who dream of
making the pros, has booked a rare, eight-day tour of the island this summer
with their parents.
Their first game is 10 a.m. on July 4. Afterward, they'll have a practice
session with the coaches of Cuba's Olympic team.
"The parents know how unusual this is. I don't know if the kids do,"
said Jim Lovejoy, business manager for the team called East Cobb USA, which is
part of the East Cobb Baseball Association.
Only two months ago, the St. Pius X High School baseball team in Atlanta
canceled a similar trip, following objections Cuban-Americans made to the
Catholic Archdiocese. The team went to Italy instead.
The parents and organizers of the east Cobb trip don't think they'll be as
vulnerable to protests.
"We're not an organization that has to answer any political questions.
And for the kids, the question of whether this is a political faux pas is
irrelevant," said Eddie Swartz, a heart-and-lung internist. His pitcher-son
has a 1.21 earned run average and is hitting over .400.
Jacob Swartz, a seventh-grader at the Westminster Schools in Atlanta, knows
a little bit about where he's going, and who Fidel Castro is. "In Spanish
we had to do a report on the Cuban missile crisis," he said.
A 40-year U.S. trade embargo prohibits American tourists from traveling to
Cuba. Exceptions must obtain permission from the U.S. Treasury Department.
The east Cobb team is booking the trip through TranSports Inc., a New
Hampshire company that specializes in athletic tours and has standing permission
to arrange visits to Cuba.
The same company planned the Cuba trip for St. Pius.
Dale Brannan, president and CEO of TranSports, said part of Cuba's allure is
its forbidden nature. "The common guy can't go there. The mystery and aura
of Cuba makes it appealing," he said.
And there's baseball. Cuba's devotion to the sport has made the island a
kind of Mount Everest for amateur ballplayers. The east Cobb team will be
playing boys from Cuba's national baseball school.
"Normally, our kids get thrashed," said Brannan, who's shepherded
five other youth teams to Cuba. "This is their life. Fidel is No. 1.
Baseball is No. 2. There is no No. 3."
Thirteen kids and 19 adults, including three coaches, will be making the
trip from metro Atlanta.
Lovejoy, whose son Tolley is the team's relief pitcher, said the trip isn't
solely about building international camaraderie.
For any boy who wants to reach the minor leagues, it's also about checking
out the competition.
"Not only are they seeing the best kids in the world, they're going to
see the kids who are after their jobs in five or six years," he said.
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