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nly a ninety-mile stretch of ocean separates the
United States and Cuba, yet events of the last fifty years had made that
geographical boundary seem larger and larger. Since Fidel Castro's 1959
revolution neither country has maintained much contact with the other. Yet before the Fidelista Revolution
things were much, much different.
The two nationÕs shared love of baseball can serve as a window to view
the complex exchange of culture between Cuba and the United States prior to the
Castro governmentÕs ban 1961 ban on all professional sports in Cuba. To
understand this sporting relationship it is essential to take an in-depth look
at three different and important time periods in Cuban baseball history,
selected because they represent both the development and popularity of the game
on the island and the major periods of exchange between the two nations. Using
baseball as a lens to analyze American-Cuban 
interactions demonstrates that
while the United States may have dominated most of Cuban society and culture it
certainly did not dominate the baseball field.
Fidel Castro visits with members of the
International League Minneapolis Millers when they played the Cuban Sugar
Kings at Havana in 1959.
In
the decades that followed the Spanish-American War the United States had three
different military occupations of the island through the Teller Amendment and
later the 1901 Platt Amendment.
Thus through American economic and imperialistic aspirations the two
nations of Cuba and the United States became increasingly interconnected. America
did not just send armies, navies, and money to Cuba it also sent culture, and
ideas to Cuba. In the same way Cuba did not just send immigrants, slaves, and
sugar to America it also sent its share of ideas, and culture to North America.
One such exchange can be viewed through the window of baseball.
For Americans baseball is the American game, however most
Americans are unaware that it is also considered by the Cuban people to be the Cuban game. In fact baseball has
been in Cuba almost as long as it has been in America. While the exact origin of baseball on
the island of Cuba is not definitely known, many believe baseball came to Cuba
through a wealthy planterÕs son named Nemesio Guillo. Like many wealthy
planters sons in the early to mid nineteenth century, Guillo was sent to
college in America. While attending college in the United States Guillo was
introduced to the game of baseball and given a ball and bat of his very
own. Guillo returned to Cuba in
1868 and promptly began to educate people on how to play the game.[1]
The game spread quickly and grew
popular the fastest within the upper to middle class population. This is both
because Guillo was a member of this class and therefore interacted most with
those people and because working people had neither the free time nor the money
needed to participate in what were then called baseball clubs. While modern sportswriters and players
may refer to a team or their own team as a club, few if any major league teams
are as the nineteenth century Cubans would have known them. For Cubans a
baseball club was not just a team organized to play other teams; it was a
social club as well. These clubs also
had several different teams organized based on the players abilities. For
example, Cuba's first baseball club Habana had at any given time three or four teams, all
named the Habana Lions. However, all teams had
a number before the word ŌHavanaĶ on their jerseys to distinguish which level
of ball players were on the field.
Cuban baseball clubs also
sometimes had a skill level and team for children. As these children grew older
they simply moved up through the various levels of the club and thus one of the
sports first farm systems was created. The types of social activities that took
place at baseball clubs were varied but most often included things like large
picnics and dancing. Since most of the Cuban population is Catholic, church
took place on Saturday night and thus Sundays were most often reserved for
leisure activities like baseball.[2] These clubs became increasingly
popular and began to pop up all over the island. One reason for this increasing
popularity was that after the Ten Years War with Spain many Cubans especially
the upper classes sought to differentiate themselves from their Spanish
oppressors. Thus once the island was under American control old Spanish sports
such as bullfighting, and soccer grew increasingly unpopular while the American
invented and played Baseball was quickly becoming "the" thing to do.[3] To help baseball along however
was the American governments presence in Cuba. A government in Cuba headed by General
Leonard Wood banned the sport of bullfighting in 1899, which was one of the
islands, only other "Sunday" sports.[4] From here baseball took off and
began to get more and more profitable and commercialized. With this
commercialization came professional baseball players. The first teams to have
truly professional baseball players were not the major league Cuban teams
however they were the so-called "sugar mill" teams. As their name
indicates these teams were composed of men who lived and worked in the large
sugar towns owned by both Cuban and American corporations. Much like the
factory towns of the United States these towns were built around both a
companies sugar mills and sugar fields. Thus in the off season when a companies
employees were neither harvesting or processing sugarcane, baseball teams were
organized and a low level league was formed for the sugar mill teams to compete
with each other in.[5]
From here large teams such as
Havana and Almendares began to pay their players to take the field each Sunday.
From this first professionalism came the first wave of super star players,
players whose mere names brought fans into the baseball fields. Now baseball
clubs truly began to turn into teams with schedules and drafts and leagues.
Just as in America during the same time stands were being built around baseball
fields to accommodate more and more baseball loving and betting fans. Like
America, Cuban baseball was widely bet upon and this only helped fuel the
sports exploding popularity across the island. Teams now not only played one
game at a time, but long term schedules were arranged as well as tournaments
with 
teams from the same skill level competing for pride, as well as a
large purse. The first of these
was organized in 1878 and included the newly formed teams of Havana and
Almendares. These two organizations soon begin a string of dominance over Cuban
professional baseball that is unparalleled in Cuban baseball. Almendares and
Havana were the Yankees of Cuban baseball and truly represented the class of
the Cuban leagues for years to come. That same year the first recorded game
between an American team and a Cuban team took place as the Almendares team
played a team called Hops Bitter from Massachusetts.
The first American professional
baseball players came into Cuba during 1878 as well. These players were
catchers and were recruited and brought to play in Cuba because Cuban managers
widely believed that catching was a very technical and difficult position that
only American ball players could truly master.[6] Early on these few American
catchers were resented in Cuba since most Cubans obviously felt their own
country could supply all the talent it needed for its own baseball leagues. As
time passed however more and more American players began to make their way into
Cuban baseball and this resentment gradually disappeared. However there is one
instance in which American baseball players were at the center of a riot. This
riot occurred in 1890 when an American team made up entirely of women began
traveling around Cuba playing series against various Cuban men's teams.[7] This particular day the women
were playing the highly regarded Almendares team when the Cuban fans in the
stands became agitated with the women's "style of play". The fans
felt that they had been cheated out of their admission money because they
believed the women to not be "real" baseball fans. As the agitation
in one part of the grand stands grew it soon spread to other sections and the
Americans, still on the field were rushed. Luckily for the American women, the
Almendares men's team who was currently up to bat, stepped in and with help
from other non agitated fans protected the women's retreat from the stadium.
While this incident was isolated and probably never repeated again the
influx of American born players into Cuba was, like baseball in Cuba just
beginning. By the late nineteenth century and early twentieth Cuba and Cuban
baseball began to come into their own. Havana the nations capital city had
always been a large and bustling port city, however during this time it truly
became an international metropolis. Now Havana not only teamed with just
merchants and traders milling around the city while their ships were made ready
for sea again, the city began to draw more and more tourists and business men.
These people came from all over the world and often arrived in Havana looking
for an exotic vacation. This popularization of Cuba and especially Havana began
because of the worldwide dissemination of Cuban music and dance. Cuban music
and dance was exotic, colorful, and slightly erotic making them the perfect
complement to a world just beginning to attain the spirit of the "Roaring
Twenties".[8] This spirit brought people into
Havana and turned the city into a global metropolis that rivaled any in Europe.
With these new tourists came money, money they gleefully looked to spend in
Havana's nightclubs, bars and restaurants. Havana's entertainment scene also
rapidly changed during this time since before the influx of tourists average,
everyday Cubans were either unable or unwilling to pay for admission into
things like circuses, carnivals, and sporting events. Previously baseball clubs
did not charge for admission into their games since it was assumed that
everyone who showed up had paid their dues to be in the club to start with. As
the clubs began to turn into professional teams, those who owned them began to
look for ways in which they could profit from them.[9] Most decided this profit should
come from charging admission, but since most average Cubans were unsympathetic
to this idea it was put on hold until a paying audience was found. This audience turned out to be the many
tourists who flooded Havana streets in the early twentieth century. Most
tourists were Americans and Europeans, both of whom were both familiar with
paying for admission to sporting events and entertainment venues. Baseball in Cuba proved a source of
much curiosity for American tourists and others, creating a strong demand for
any and all baseball games played in the islandÕs capital city.
Now for the first time Cuban
baseball teams and owners charged for admission, which wealthy international
tourists happily paid. These
ticket sales allowed teams to build real stadiums with dugouts and locker rooms
for the players and bathrooms and concession stands for the fans. Another
factor driving the exploding popularity and profitability of Baseball in Cuba
was the development and widespread use of radio. Just as in America, Cubans were drawn to their radios to
hear the latest music, news, and sports. Sports like baseball were broadcast
across Cuba, as well as the Caribbean, helping promote the sport and popularize
Cuban baseballÕs biggest names.
Professional baseball in Cuba grew rapidly growing and matured during
this time, as did all levels of Cuban baseball. Amateur teams increased in number dramatically, as did both
sugar mill teams and children's teams.[10] This early Cuban farm system later became more defined and
soon produced highly skilled and talented players. These players grew popular throughout Cuba and the rest of
the Caribbean also because of radio. As broadcasts became more prevalent
throughout Cuba, American radio sportscasters arrived to teach Cuban baseball
announcers how to make the broadcasts exciting and informative. Cuban baseball
on the radio also reached in the United States, especially in Florida and the
Texas gulf coast. Thanks to these
broadcasts American scouts on the mainland become aware of, and interested in,
Cuban and other Latin players.
Cuba was unlike racially
segregated and intolerant America, and the nationÕs baseball teams and
organizations reflected this.
While many African Americans played baseball in America were kept out of
the major leagues until Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947, this
was not the case with Cuba. While the history of the American Negro
Leagues is one of oppression and segregation, it is also distinctly tied to
Cuban baseball.[11] After the Spanish-
American War in which white and black Cubans fought side by side, it
became difficult for Caucasian Cubans to continue excluding their black country
men from any aspect of Cuban society; thus in the early years of the nineteenth
century professional Cuban baseball integrated. This fact alone accounts for the numerous exchanges of
players, playing styles, and teams between the Negro Leagues and the Cuban
Leagues during this time. For as
long as baseball had been in Cuba, Cuban baseball fans wondered how their own
teams would compete with teams from America. Anytime an American team visited
Cuba to play an exhibition series against Cuban teams, the attendance at the
games skyrocketed. It became
clearly profitable for Cuban owners to play American teams. Negro league teams seemed an obvious
fit, as the visits benefited both the Cubans and the Americans. For the American ballplayers, Cuba was
not just a beautiful island, it was a paradise in which to escape the harsh
racism of America, if only for a few days. Negro Leaguers looked forward to playing in Cuba, as they
did not face racial prejudice as they did in America. Often the Cuban series paid these players more than they
could have earned in America.[12]
CubaÕs ties to AmericaÕs black
baseball teams dates from 1885, when Frank P. Thompson formed the first
professional black baseball team. Thompson was the headwaiter at the Argyle
Hotel in Babylon, Long Island, New York, and his team was composed of other
black men who worked at the hotel.[13] Thompson and his players named
their team the Cuban Giants, despite the fact that none of the players on the
roster were Cuban and, at this point, none had ever even been to Cuba. The reason for this odd reference to
Cuba in their name was because Thompson and his players believed that if they
portrayed themselves as Cubans and not simply African Americans, they could
avoid some of the racial slurs and discrimination often levied upon black
baseball teams. These men even went as far as to talk gibberish to each other
while they were on the field so that the fans in the stands would believe they
were speaking Spanish and really were from Cuba.
It is also widely believed that these men used "Cuban" in
their team name because many high society guests of the hotel had been to Cuba
and watched baseball there. Thus these people were familiar with the darker
complexion of Cuban baseball teams and were therefore less suspicious of the
actual "Cubaness" of the Cuban Giants. Following Thompson's lead,
other Negro League baseball teams inserted "Cuban" into their
names. Yet another reason for this
odd incorporation was that in places like New York and Florida there were large
populations of Cubans who had immigrated to the United States during Cuba's
battle for independence.[14] These teams possibly used the name ŌCubanĶ also to gain
popularity and fans in these communities, as well as perhaps to recruit some
real Cubans to play on their team.
One can thus imagine the confusion when Cuban baseball created the
so-called "American Season" and American Negro League teams with the
word "Cuban" in their nicknames actually went to Cuba to play against
genuine Cuban teams. In the first
year of the twentieth century both the Cuban Giants and the Cuban X-Giants, a
team mostly made up of defectors from the original Cuban Giants, made their way
to Havana and played several games against the teams of the Cuban Professional
league.[15] These two American teams faced
the Havana Lions, the Almendares Reds, and other well-known and powerful Cuban
professional teams. While the two
American teams were well known as the class of the Negro Leagues, they were
both repeatedly, and handily, defeated by the Cuban teams.[16] These wins delighted the Cuban
fans, who packed the stadium day after day to watch their country men take on
the Americans. These games also
convinced Cuban baseball teams and owners of the marketability of Cuban players
in America.
The Cubans learned from the
Americans that Cuban baseball was of great interest to American baseball fans
and that, if the Cuban teams ever wanted to play there, they would most definitely
be received with open arms and wallets. Soon wealthy entrepreneurs in both Cuba
and America began recruiting and forming teams in Cuba just to play in the
United States. These teams had names like the Cuban Stars, Havana Reds, and
Cuban All Stars. The All Stars
were the only one of these three to play solely in the Negro League, while the
other two clubs were independents that
barnstormed mostly around the East Coast playing any team not currently
in an American professional leagues.[17] While Negro League teams were the first to visit and play in
Cuba, major league teams began arriving in Cuba at least as early as 1910 when
the Detroit Tigers went on a barnstorming trip of the island.[18] Many Americans thought any team from the major leagues would
simply crush Cuban teams from Cuba, but this proved not the case. In most instances the Cuban teams
won the matches by sizable amounts. Some argued this was because the Cubans
were playing at home in front of home fans, but that slight advantage only accounts
for so much. When the World Series
champion Philadelphia Athletics and their famous manager Connie Mack went to
Cuba in 1909, they lost four times in eight games to the Cuban powerhouses,
Almendares and Havana.[19] This trend of defeat in Cuba for American teams of all
calibers continued for many years.
Once teams from Cuba and the
United States began regularly playing each one another, managers and owners on
both sides grew increasingly familiar with the oppositionÕs players. Owners,
scouts, and managers then began actively recruiting and signing players from
both Cuba and the United States. In baseballÕs early days in Cuba, player
exchanges had existed on a level.
The pace and scale of this exchange, however, was nothing like it later
become. Beginning with the Cuban GiantsÕ visit to Havana, Cuban managers
courted and recruited many Negro League players to play in Cuba. Man
African-American players found Cuba appealing because it lacked the racial
prejudice of America. These
players could also earn more money in the Cuban leagues, which made Cuba a
prime destination for African-American players at least until the integration
of Major League Baseball in 1947.
African-American players
dramatically affected the Cuban professional leagues from 1907 to 1910 because
both old and newly-formed Cuban teams began heavily stocking their teams with
American players. Famous Negro
League players such as Bill Petway, Nate Harris, and George Walter Ball all won
championships with teams like
Havana, Fe, and Mantanzas.[20] This exodus of American players
came after Cuban baseball teams learned that Negro League teams like the
Philadelphia Giants and others were secretly negotiating with Cuban players
during the Cuban baseball season.
Some of these players then simply left their Cuban teams and went to
play for American Negro League teams.
As a result, several Cuban teams that were actively involved in the
championship race quickly fell out of contention because their best players were
now all in America. The anger and
resentment of this "theft," as the Cubans called it, led Cuban
managers and owners to vow that as soon, and as often as possible, they would
steal players from the Negro Leagues.
American players who went to Cuba
often did not join a Cuban team permanently, and big name players from America
went to Cuba independently. For
example, Babe Ruth traveled to Cuba for a ten-game series with the Cuban
Giants. Ruth, and others like him,
were lured to Cuba during the off-season with promises of large paychecks and
heavy partying. Ruth received two
thousand dollars a day during his short stint on the island the year after he
hit fifty-four home runs.[21] The outbreak of World War I also
dramatically affected both the Cuban and American baseball landscape. As the
war began the rosters of the American Major league teams became the target of
the armed forces draft. Rapidly more and more holes began to appear in the
lineups of these teams and increasingly American scouts looked to Cubans to
fill these gaps. Thus despite the fact that the Cuban economy was benefiting
from rising world sugar prices in the wake of war, the nations elite baseball
league simply ceased to exist during the years of 1914-1918.[22] When the war finally ended those American
ball players not killed in the war returned to their former teams displacing
many of the stand-in Cubans. Some stayed in America and played for Negro or
independent league teams, but most simply returned Cuba. The Cuba to which these players returned
one of increasing wealth both because of high prices for sugar and the fact
that America had enacted Prohibition. For Cuba, this meant that wealthy
Americans increasingly looked to the island as both a wet getaway and as a
place that could produce and distribute the alcohol American makers no longer
could.[23] Prohibition and the 1920s proved a great time to be in Cuba
and an even better time to be a Cuban baseball player. After the Great Depression struck,
however, Cuba's economy rapidly declined by the mid-1930s as the price of sugar
fell, slowly at first and then faster and faster as the Depression engulfed the
rest of the world. The greatest
period in Cuban baseball came to an end as baseball took a back seat to the
nationÕs larger and more pressing problems.
The early years of the Depression
saw the collapse of the premier Cuban baseball league after its two main clubs,
Almendares and Havana, were sold by the former ownerÕs widow. The new owners were only interested in
squeezing money from the teams and did little to improve team rosters or
attendance. As the two teams grew
worse and worse, Cuban fans simply stopped coming to games and the league as a
whole went defunct.[24] Several Cuban owners and managers, however, decided to make
use of the newly constructed La Tropical stadium.
In an effort to recapture the popularity of baseball, these men began
inviting American Major League teams to hold spring training in Cuba.[25] Many teams took the Cubans up on
this offer because Cuba's weather offered a welcome break from the rain and
cold usually found in most of the United States in spring.
American teams and managers also
looked forward to playing in the new stadium in Havana because the stands were
filled with screaming Cuban fans whether a game was being played or not. These spring training sessions proved
the first of many events that restored baseballÕs popularity and prestige in
Cuba. Oddly enough, World War II
also helped bring Cuban baseball back to life. As in World War I, American players were being drafted,
leaving their employers to wonder how to replace them. Once more teams turned to the baseball
capital of the Caribbean to fill their needs. Soon most American major league teams had rosters filled
with men who spoke little or no English.
These Cuban players had attracted the attention of many American scouts
with their fast feet and a quick-thinking style of play not often seen in
American baseball.[26] One such scout was a former minor league outfielder whose
broken leg cut short his playing days. The injury did not end his baseball
career, however; instead he simply sifted his focus to the front office and
became a scout. This was Joe
Cambria, and he worked for the Washington Senators. During Cambria's tenure with the club, he almost exclusively
scouted and recruited Cuban players whom he signed and sent to Washington. Cambria first learned just how good
Cuban baseball players were in 1933 when he owned the Baltimore Black Sox of
the Negro National League.[27] Cambria had purchased the team hoping to both offset his
costs and make a small profit from ticket sales. Several unsuccessful years
discourage Cambria. He sold the team, but not before he had witnessed the
incredible baseball abilities of Cuban players and even signed some himself.
The Washington Senators promptly hired Cambria as a
scout. After the Senators won the
1933 American League pennant, it saw both attendance and player talent decay.[28] Cambria worked diligently to fix this and came to be known as
a great scout who could find talent cheaply in many locations. His preferred location was Cuba. Intelligent but guarded, Cambria
possessed volumes of personal knowledge and experience about baseball. Drawing on this experience. Cambria
deduced that while the best Cuban talent all played in and around Havana, these
players did not necessarily come from the Havana area. Cambria later confirmed that Havana was
only the end destination for the islandÕs great ball players. These players were often born, raised,
and learned baseball in regions like Mantanzas, Villa Clara, and Santiago de
Cuba. In order to capture and
scout these players before they made it to Havana and signed with a Cuban
premier team, Cambria established a network of scouts spread throughout the
Cuban countryside.[29] These scouts were to bring the best Cuba players to the
attention of Cambria and other upper-level Senators. Cambria and his assistants then come scout the players
themselves and decided whether to offer them the chance to play in
America. If these younger players
were interested in Cambria's offer, they would sign with the Senators and first
play in the teamÕs minor league system.
Cambria reserved scouting the major-league quality players for himself
and went as far as to purchase a hotel located directly behind the center field
wall at one of Havana's largest stadiums.
From vantage point, Cambria and his scouts could observe all games at
the stadium as well as socialize with and pamper prospective players. Employing these methods, Cambria soon
stocked both the SenatorsÕ farm system and the major league team itself with
young Cuban talent.[30] Cambria placed so many Cuban players on the major league
roster that the first all-Cuban triple play occurred on July 23, 1960, when the
Senators beat the Kansas City Athletics 8-3.[31]
Senator's fans and management
alike were delighted with the final product of Joe Cambria's hard work. This sentiment was not shared by
everyone, however, as Cuban press began calling Cambria "the laundryman"
because, year after year, he figurative took Cuban baseball to the
"cleaners." Cuban
journalists also charged that Cambria often deceived Cuban prospects to get
them to sign a blank contract.
Additionally, Cambria's detractors claimed many times that Cuban players
were either unaware of, or purposefully kept from, the harsh realities of life
as a dark-skinned minor leaguer.
In the early days, Cubans players were granted a pass in terms of most
racial hostilities, but at the height of the Civil Rights movement in America,
all free passes were soon used up.
Often young Cuban players were sent to minor league teams in the Deep
South completely unprepared for the severity of racism in America. The first time these men encountered
the name-calling, taunting, and constant threat of bodily harm that still
accompanied newly integrated African American players as they walked to the
field previous to the games start was when they themselves did it. Conceivably
any one of these critiques of Cambria and the Senators could be true it is also
equally as possible that none or only some are true. Regardless of how much
truth any of these really held Cambria was tremendously successful and this
success had negative consequences for Cuban baseball. Increasingly American
teams were raiding the Cuban amateur leagues and the best Cuban players were
going to America in larger and larger numbers.[32]
While Cambria and the Senators
were busy trying to climb the competitive American League standings using young
and talented Cubans, others were trying slightly different paths to the top.
Cubans themselves were also attempting to break into the major leagues. One path led a former Cuban baseball
player named Bobby Maduro to create the Cuban Sugar Kings. This team, composed entirely of Cubans,
played four years in the AAA 
International League, which also included teams from America and
Canada.[33] Maduro hoped that, because Triple-A was only one level below
the American 
major leagues, Cuban, as well as
other Latino, players would want to play for the Sugar Kings. In this way, Maduro imagined his team
dominating the market for not just Cuban players but all Latino players as
well. The Sugar KingsÕ ambition
was to ascend from the triple A ranks to the Major League ranks where they
could eventually compete in and win an All-Latino world series. Unfortunately
for Maduro and his talented, but young players, this dream of an all Cuban
major league team never reached fruition, even though the Sugar Kings won the
International League pennant several times.[34] The main, and most obvious,
reason for this was that the Sugar Kings only existed until 1960 when out of
concern for American players safety in Cuba, Major League Baseball who ran and
owned the International league ended the practice of teams going to play in
Cuba.[35]
The ten to fifteen years before
the Sugar KingsÕ demise saw Cuban baseball pass through its most stable and
profitable period ever. Cuban
baseball thrived during the early 1950s as many Cuban players got rich by both
playing in the United States and Cuba.
Wealthier in the aftermath of high sugar prices during World War II,
Cuba thought its people were happy and content to root for their favorite
baseball teams and players. Cubans
fan did much more than simply root for their teams, though; they increasingly
began to buy American style baseball merchandise. By the 1950s bright and colorful American-style baseball
cards appeared in Cuba as did glossy multi-page programs common to most
American ballparks. As 
televisions grew more widespread, Cuban baseball became a favorite
program. As in America, large
television audiences eagerly watched as their teams progressed through season
after season of competition. The
large audiences also meant Cuban baseball received large TV contracts that
meant Cuban players earned more money.
This extra money also allowed Cuban teams to scout more actively and
sign more American players than they previously could afford. Cuban baseball players also grew
wealthier and more famous thanks to the American-style endorsements they now
did. Because commercials during
baseball games reached so many people in Cuba, business willingly paid large
sums for well-known players to endorse or feature a companyÕs products in ads
aired during the games.[36]
Despite the increased money, Cuban
baseball was in deep trouble by the time Fidel Castro came power in 1959. The minor and amateur league farm
systems were all but devoid of tremendously talented young Cubans because the
best were all gobbled up by American teams. In an effort to end the pillaging of Cuban talent by
American teams and to restore the honor and pride of his countryÕs favorite
pastime, Castro officially banned all professional sports in Cuba in 1961. While this ban affected any sport
played in Cuba, its biggest impact was on baseball. Now all Cubans wishing to play baseball had to do so on
Cuba's amateur and National teams.
Categorized as amateurs, they were now ineligible to play for or be
drafted by American professional teams.
This move effectively ended all baseball ties between the United States
and Cuba.
Combined with the Cold War
tensions between America and Cuba, Castro's ban did exactly what hoped. It stopped American players from coming
to Cuba and stopped Cuban players for going to America. As a result, Castro kept his best
baseball talent at home to play for CubaÕs national teams. Not surprisingly,
since 1961 Cuba has had the best amateur baseball program in the world, far
surpassing that of any other nation including the United States. America, the larger, more powerful,
wealthier, neighbor and all-too-often general oppressor of Cuba gave its
national pastime to the Cuban people only to watch as Cubans swiftly adopted
the sport and regularly beat both American players and teams. That Cuba can regularly defeat America
in baseball is only a part of the story.
Cultural interaction and exchange are the real consequences. From baseballÕs beginning on the island
until 1961, players from both countries left their homelands to play either in
America or in Cuba. These players carried the culture and identity of their
respective nations with them and exposed these ideas and values to all
teammates, fans and coaches they encountered along the way. Cultural ideas also
went back and forth across the water as Cuba copied ideas like American-style
baseball cards and marketing, while America discovered Cuban music, style, and
food and perhaps the seeds of racial tolerance it sorely lacked. Without the shared love for baseball
the vast amount of cultural interchange between Cuba and America before 1961
would have been either non-existent or much, much smaller.
c c c c c