Last Tuesday, I watched as the Tampa Bay Rays won a spring training game 4-1. But this wasn’t any ordinary spring training game, and the result of the game wasn’t important. Last Tuesday’s game transcended baseball. The Rays played the Cuban national baseball team at Estadio Latinoamericano in Havana, Cuba. It was the first time a Major League Baseball team played in Cuba since 1999, when the Baltimore Orioles played the Cuban national team. This is significant because of the rocky relationship the United States and Cuba have had for the past five decades.
The uneasy relationship between the U.S. and Cuba began when Cuba fell under Communist rule after Fidel Castro came to power as Prime Minister in 1959. Since then, it seems like Cuba has been stuck in the 1950s. In 1961, the U.S. cut off diplomatic relations with Cuba and created a commercial, economic and financial embargo against Cuba after it sided with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Since then, the relationship between the U.S. and Cuba has been uncomfortable, to say the least.
In 1976, Castro was elected as Cuban President. Due to health issues, Fidel Castro had to give his brother Raul Castro presidential duties in 2006, and Raul was elected to succeed Fidel as Cuban President in 2008.
President Obama was in attendance at the game with his wife and kids, sitting next to Raul Castro. President Obama’s visit marked the first appearance by an American president in Cuba since Calvin Coolidge was there in 1928. When President Obama emerged from the concourse into view of the crowd, he was greeted with a standing ovation. After giving Michelle Obama and her daughters roses, Rays players met the President at his seat behind the plate, and they exchanged handshakes through the protective netting.
I watched the on-field festivities that preceded the game and it felt a lot like I was watching a World Cup soccer match. Children were dancing with hula hoops down the right field line. Children were dancing with inflatable balls down the left field line. Women were dancing on the infield with flags, all the while Latin music was blasting through the loudspeakers. Two sections in center field were reserved for fans dressed in white, singing and dancing to choreographed routines and waving flags. Each player walked onto the field carrying a Cuban child holding a rose and a small Cuban flag. The crowd erupted when a flock of pigeons was released in center field. I heard the "Ole, Ole, Ole" chant many times before and during the game. Fans cheered after each out like it was a playoff game in October. There’s a lot more emotion and personality in Cuban baseball compared to the American game. To the Cuban people, baseball is more than just a game--it’s very much a celebration of Cuban pride.
For many years it was thought that the best Cuban baseball players were not playing American baseball in the MLB, but playing back in Cuba for the country's national team. That isn’t true anymore. In recent years, many Cuban ballplayers have defected from Cuba to play in the MLB. Yasiel Puig, Yoenis Cespedes, Aroldis Chapman, and Jose Abreu are some of the MLB’s biggest superstars, and they all defected from Cuba. Because the U.S. has an economic embargo against Cuba, teams cannot simply sign a player directly from Cuba. Players must defect and find a way into the U.S. in order to play in the MLB.
Defecting isn’t an easy process for Cuban ballplayers, and it’s illegal. If caught, defectors face imprisonment. Often, the defectors must travel with human traffickers who act as guides since they are knowledgeable in how to sneak into the U.S. In many instances, the human traffickers are affiliated with Cuban cartels and demand a percentage of the ballplayer's future earnings as compensation. Cuban players looking to come to the MLB must travel many miles by foot at night, under cover of darkness, to reach the ocean and meet their guides. Some players choose to bring their families, but many leave loved ones behind because of the danger that awaits them on their journey.
The guides wait for the players on small boats or homemade rafts. Defectors take the boats or rafts to nearby Mexico to establish residency, but there’s no guarantee that they’ll ever make it there. The boat ride to Mexico is extremely dangerous and it can take as long as a few weeks. Along the long journey, the defectors may encounter sharks, storms or even 20-25 foot waves on the choppy Atlantic Ocean. If they make it safely to Mexico, they must establish residency in the country, which can take several months. Many Cuban players are pretty much held captive by the human traffickers in Mexican boardinghouses as they establish residency. While in Mexico, Cuban players must petition for free agency from the MLB and be unblocked by the Office of Foreign Assets Control. Once they have established residency, players may enter contract negotiations with MLB teams. At this point in the process, Cuban players are moved to the Mexico-US border where they are accepted into the U.S. based on the Cuban Adjustment Act, which allows Cubans to seek asylum in the U.S., no questions asked, as long as they can prove they're Cubans and as long as they enter the U.S. on dry ground, as opposed to crossing into U.S. territory at sea.
After this long and dangerous process, Cuban players can begin their baseball careers in America. After signing their MLB contracts, many of them will make payments to the human traffickers who helped them defect from Cuba. The MLB is actively trying to make this process obsolete in favor of a much safer and more direct process, straight from Cuba to the U.S. But, a safer solution for Cuban ballplayers and the MLB isn't possible until the political relationship between Cuba and the U.S. is normalized.
Today, the U.S. and Cuba have entered a period of warmer or relaxed relations called the “Cuban Thaw”. The U.S. has agreed to lift travel restrictions to Cuba, reopen the U.S. Embassy in Havana and the Cuban Embassy in Washington, D.C., and allow the U.S. access to the Cuban financial system.
Seeing President Obama and his family sitting with Raul Castro and enjoying a day at the ballpark was a great sign for future relations between the U.S. and Cuba. With the two countries now on better terms, baseball may act as the commonality that brings the U.S. and Cuba together to normalize their relationship.
It just goes to show the political power that sports can have.
