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Cuba's baseball fans find
ways to tune in
By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan,
Boston
Globe Staff. October 20, 2004.
HAVANA -- There are few places outside
of Boston, New York, Houston, and St. Louis
where the Major League playoffs are being
followed with such keen interest as on this
baseball-crazy island. Every day, upwards
of 100 men, young and old, pay a visit to
the ''Esquina Caliente," or ''hot corner"
in Havana's Central Park -- a legendary
spot under shady trees where from morning
to nightfall, aficionados of a game that
both Cubans and Americans claim as their
own national pastime come to relive the
previous night's plays.
Yesterday, all the talk was of the dramatic
14-inning Red Sox victory Monday night to
stay in the league championship series.
But Cuban fans -- especially those fiercely
loyal to Yankees pitcher Orlando ''El Duque"
Hernandez -- put the odds on the Yanks to
head to the World Series.
''I saw last night's game . . . at a friend's
house, and it was a fight between lions
-- either team deserves to be in the World
Series," gushed Enrique Rodriguez,
26, who stopped by before work to describe
in grand gestures the most dramatic plays
for dozens of earnestly nodding fans who
weren't lucky enough to see the games.
Television broadcasts from the United States
are blocked by the Cuban government, so
only a small minority of Cubans who can
afford illegal satellite dishes or have
access to tourist hotels can watch Major
League games. Others struggle to tune in
Miami radio stations, and the few who have
Internet access print out box scores and
team standings and bring them along to share.
Most fans catch up on the latest results
and baseball gossip via word of mouth, and
tempers fly over which teams are playing
the best.
A hot topic these days is the recent defection
of six promising young Cuban players --
the largest mass desertion of baseball players
since Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution. The
group turned up in the Florida Keys this
month after two days at sea. The one who
fans predict will have the best shot at
the majors is Yunel Guevara, 21, who helped
his team, the Havana Industriales, win last
year's Cuban national championship.
Not unjustifiably, Cubans see themselves
as a baseball powerhouse: Havana invests
heavily in its sports programs, and Cuba
won gold in three of the four Olympic baseball
contests -- in 1992, 1996, and this year
in Athens.
But the latest defections come on the heels
of other high-profile desertions in the
last two years by top pitchers including
Jose Contreras and first baseman/outfielder
Kendry Morales. Some 50 elite Cuban players
have left since 1991, most headed to the
United States, and fans here worry that
the exodus of talent is taking its toll
on the Cuban league, whose new season starts
next month. The government condemns sports
defectors, and harshly punishes those it
suspects of talking to talent scouts. But
fans have mixed feelings toward their countrymen
who seek their fortunes overseas.
''Look at Contreras -- he made $50 a month
here, and now he makes $8 million a season,"
said Antonio Perez, 41, an unemployed restaurant
worker. ''The first who defected was Rene
Arocha in 1991 when the economic difficulties
began here, and since then, it's been like
a conveyor belt of players on the way out.
Of course we're sorry, because we can't
have the joy of following their careers,
and they can't visit and have contact with
their fans. But I'm happy they've bettered
their lives and we're proud of them as Cubans."
Cuba has a long history of its top talent
heading north; in 1911, two Cubans became
the first foreign-born players in the major
leagues. Of 120 foreigners in the major
leagues before the 1959 revolution, 81 were
Cubans, according to Ismael Sene, 76, a
retired Cuban diplomat and unofficial baseball
historian.
But by the late '50s, Cuban baseball was
dying, Sene said, because so many players
had gone to the majors and were not returning
in winter to play in their national league.
A surprise result of the revolution and
collapse of US-Cuban relations was to revive
Cuban play.
Back at the ''hot corner," fan Antonio
Perez seemed to be alone in rooting for
the Sox. ''The Yankees have too much money
and they pay too much for players -- it's
not fair. I hope Boston can beat them."
Juan Diaz, 46, a mechanic, shook his head
at Perez as if he were delusional. ''That
team is cursed!"
A Globe correspondent contributed to
this story in Havana.
© Copyright
2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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