Baseball-Crazy Cuba Hopes to Clinch World Title Against Japan
HAVANA, Cuba, March 20, 2006 — -- Cubans put their troubles aside over the weekend as they celebrated their semifinal victory over the Dominican Republic at the first World Baseball Classic.
The collective euphoria continues as Cuba takes on Japan tonight in the finals, a contest they never thought they could play in, much less win.
Baseball is Cuba's passion, and the national team is a source of collective pride on this Caribbean island of 11 million people who often feel belittled, misunderstood and victimized by the outside world.
Months ago, the U.S. Treasury Department ruled that Cuba, the undisputed champion of amateur baseball, could not participate in the first World Baseball Classic because the prize money would violate the U.S. trade embargo.
The Bush administration reversed its decision only after the World Baseball Federation threatened to boycott the games and President Fidel Castro offered to donate all proceeds to Hurricane Katrina victims.
That set the stage for the Cuban team to compete against the world's best teams for the first time since the 1959 revolution put an end to professional sports on the island.
Early Saturday evening, Havana's streets were deserted and the usually packed buses were empty. Homes and bars rocked in near hysteria as the Cuban team pulled ahead in the seventh inning and then held off a Dominican lineup of major league stars to win the game, 3-1.
"It was bedlam. Horns began blaring and the celebrating was so loud I couldn't hear the announcer's final words," said Carlos Barnes, a retired government functionary in Cuba's third-largest city, Holguin.
The country basked in the victory and is getting ready to start all over again tonight as Team Cuba takes on Japan at San Diego's PETCO Park.
Whatever the outcome of tonight's championship game, the WBC has already brought joy to this Communist-run country that has suffered hard economic times since the Soviet Union collapsed and the United States imposed sanctions.
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