At the airport, the athletes were personally welcomed by the President of the Republic, Miguel Diaz-Canel, who greeted the baseball players as winners.
“Our team has shaken a lot! The dream is not over, the dream has just begun, and you have made it possible,” wrote the Cuban leader on his Twitter page (blocked in the Russian Federation).
unexpected success
The meeting of the team turned out to be truly “champion”, despite the defeat in the semi-finals. And although this result is not a record for the Cuban national team (in the first matches held in 2006, the Cubans lost in the final, taking second place), against the backdrop of unconvincing results in recent years, it is a real feat. For example, in the previous series of games held in 2017, which traditionally attract the biggest crowds and are in fact the main competitions for baseball teams, Cuba took only 7th place.
This year, the Cubans have clearly exceeded all wildest expectations. They lost the first two games of their group (against the Netherlands and Italy), but then they managed to beat the national teams of Panama and Chinese Taipei, which finally allowed the Cubans to leave their group from first place. In the quarter-finals, albeit with difficulty, the Australian team was beaten. But no miracle happened in the semi-finals: the American team did not notice their opponent and dominated them with a big score of 14:2. Now the Americans await their opponent in the final, which will be determined during the confrontation between Japan and Mexico.
Not only sports
But talking only about baseball versus the last championship is clearly not going to work. In sport, as is unfortunately often the case in recent times, politics have intervened.
Playing in the semi-finals of the Cuban national team was extremely difficult. After all, the semi-final took place at Loandepo Park in Miami. In the neighborhood of Little Havana, which received its name for a reason: it was here that Cuban immigrants began to settle in the 60s of the last century. Now, Miami as a whole has finally become a mecca for Cubans who have left Liberty Island. Now, most of them consider themselves “true fighters for the independence” of Cuba, and as a poet, everything that touches the legitimate authorities of the country is viewed with hostility. Even the baseball team. Hence the incessant shouting from the stands at the most important moments with political slogans, provocative posters, demonstrations and similar actions knocking down athletes supposed to demonstrate their “civil position” in hot and well-fed Miami.
Experts question the very composition of the national team. Many top players have been left out of the national team. The fact is that there is no official agreement between the American leagues (including Major League Baseball, MLB) and the Cuban authorities now Cubans cannot play in the United States. Such an agreement was signed during Barack Obama’s “American-Cuban thaw”, but his successor Donald Trump canceled the agreements.
There are now many examples of how Cuban baseball players left for the United States and built quite successful careers, turning into world-class stars. On the eve of the current V World Baseball Classic, MLB management issued a license to Cuban players to participate in these competitions as part of their team. But here the Cuban Baseball Federation considered that the “deserters” (here they are rightly called those players who arbitrarily left the location of the national team in previous foreign tournaments and did not return to their country of origin) are not fit to represent the country. The doors were closed to them. Only those who left Cuba on their own and did not flee their team were allowed to participate. Of course, this narrowed the circle of candidates.
Invitations to the national team have also been received by athletes playing in other professional leagues with which the Cuban federation has agreements (eg Mexico, Japan). There, Cubans perform legally. The only problem is that they are not as solid championships as the same MLB.
The Cuban national championship, meanwhile, is also unable to provide the national team with high-class players. Baseball in Cuba is still amateur, there is no professional sport here. Evidenced by the results of last year’s winners of the Cuban championship team “Agricultores” in the 65th edition of the Caribbean Series, in which the leaders of the national championships of the Caribbean region meet. The champion of Liberty Island, which includes only Cubans, lost 6 of the 7 games in the tournament and took the last place.
However, baseball remains the main national sport in Cuba. The “pelota” (“pelota” is translated from Spanish as “ball” – note RG) is played here by almost everyone from an early age. Baseball fields are everywhere here, the sport is really popular and massive. Clear proof of the popularity of baseball in Cuba is Commander Fidel Castro’s passion for the sport.
It remains to be hoped that by the VI World Baseball Classic in 2026, the Cubans will be able to put together the strongest team that will become a real contender for the championship title.
