Cuban Baseball Initiative

chf_mom

Did you all see this story in the NYT yesterday? Interesting development recently retired Pawtucket Red Sox Owner/GM Lou Schwechheimer's efforts in bringing a minor league franchise to Cuba -- baseball diplomacy between US and Cuba

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11...cy-in-cuba.html?_r=0

In a former life, I was a Baltimore Sun newspaper photographer and traveled to Cuba to cover Pope John Paul II's visit to Cuba in 1998 and then returned in 1999 to cover the historic game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Cuban National Team - both in Havana in March and in Baltimore in May. It was an amazing experience I will never forget, and hope to return for another visit. It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming years between Cuba and the US. Here is a link to a gallery of photos from the 1999 games - http://www.baltimoresun.com/sp...-20150527-story.html

11/30/159:58 PM

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joemktg5,000+ posts

Doubt this will happen. Reason: it needs to be a part of a larger centralized effort spearheaded by the Cuban government in conjunction with MLB. Any one-offs will die on the vine. This idea is a one-off.

The posting system that exists in APAC will be used by the Cuban government so that they can recover revenue from its talent base. And I wouldn't at all be surprised if the Baseball Federation of Cuba "convinces" MLB to "participate" in the development of Cuban academies for its current league teams.

The only way this minor league franchise in Cuba gets off the ground is if it feeds from the academy structure. And the academy structure will ultimately be controlled by the Federation.

Now if we can find a way to trade for all those 1950's auto bodies for custom mods...

12/1/159:33 AM

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chf_mom

You are probably right, although it sounds like the entourage is having a lot of fun with this effort. Sounds like there may be support for it, however things move glacially in Cuba, as evidenced by the five day wait to meet Castro's son that never happened.

Those cars are beauties, aren't they? The country is a photographer's dream.

12/1/156:14 PM

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2014 Dad1,000+ posts

Well things are opening up slowly, Penn State just finished an exhibition series and

U Richmond leaving in 2 weeks for one as well.

12/2/152:24 PM

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