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Gloom on deck?
From the man on the street
to Fidel Castro, Cuba's baseball fans are
a bit pessimistic about their team's tournament
chances.
By Mike Clary. South
Florida Sun-Sentinel, February 28 2006.
HAVANA · In beisbol-mad Cuba, fans
have come to expect their national team
to dominate in international competition.
So the U.S. decision allowing the Cubans
into the World Baseball Classic would seem
to offer one more chance for the communist
island nation to outshine bigger capitalist
rivals.
But as the team prepares for its March
8 opener against Panama in Puerto Rico,
many here worry that the Cubans won't even
make it out of the first round of the 16-team
tournament.
"No pitching," lamented Guillermo
Cabrera, 48, a regular at the celebrated
"esquina caliente," or hot corner,
of Parque Central where fans talk baseball
all day, every day.
Indeed, no less an analyst than Cuban President
Fidel Castro has expressed pessimism about
the team's prospects for a championship
marquee matchup against the U.S. squad of
Major League Baseball stars.
"We're not going to say that we're
the best," Castro said, according to
the Associated Press. Americans, Castro
remarked, "have taken away a lot of
the best pitchers, offering them millions
of dollars."
Many Cuban stars have left the island to
sign lucrative major-league contracts. Defectors
have included pitchers Orlando Hernandez
and Jose Contreras, who helped the Chicago
White Sox win last year's World Series.
What is new is the gloomy outlook in a
country that has captured gold in baseball
in three of the past four Olympic Games.
The team will lack international experience,
home-run power and pitchers, according to
Cuban fans.
"We have a very young team, with only
one strong pitcher, Pedro Luis Lazo,"
Cabrera said. "I think they will be
able to compete with Panama and the Netherlands
-- but Puerto Rico ... "
"They can beat Puerto Rico,"
said another man in the circle.
"Vayase!" responded Cabrera.
Get out of here.
Cubans want to believe, and those looking
for hope can find it in the pages of Granma,
the communist party newspaper. Under a headline
that read "Training: Going splendidly!",
baseball writer Sigfredo Barros predicted
that the Cubans would do well, even against
powerhouse teams from Venezuela, the Dominican
Republic and the U.S.
And the players believe.
"We're all enthusiastic, crazy to
reach that moment when we will step out
on the field in Puerto Rico and show off
our quality," Eduardo Paret, the captain,
told the Associated Press.
The Bush administration originally opposed
Cuba's entry into the tournament, citing
the 45-year-old trade embargo on the island.
The U.S. Treasury Department lifted the
ban after the Castro government agreed to
donate to Hurricane Katrina relief any profits
the team makes. That raised protest from
at least one Cuban-American lawmaker, U.S.
Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Miami. He described
the decision as "lamentable and unfortunate"
and called on the Cuban players to defect
once they reach U.S. territory in Puerto
Rico.
Max J. Castro, a Miami-based analyst and
columnist, called the objections of Diaz-Balart
and others on the right in the Cuban-American
community "incredibly knee-jerk and
misguided."
If those opposed to the Cuban team playing
in the classic really want the players to
defect, Max Castro said, "they should
be advocating for them to play. This is
baseball mixed with politics as usual."
Mike Clary can be reached at mwclary22@yahoo.com.
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