Cubans’ passion for baseball ‘is their DNA’ – TBO.com

HAVANA — Hector Guindo bounced his black, 1952 Dodge four-door sedan through the rain Sunday afternoon and gestured wildly as he talked about Tuesday’s game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cuban national baseball team.

He spoke quickly and in Spanish. Every so often you could make out the name Dayron Verona, who was born in Cuba and defected three years ago with his mother.

Guindo is aware of Verona’s story, how the Rays’ minor-league outfielder returned home Sunday night with the Rays to reunite with his family and to play against the Cubans.

It seems every Cuban baseball fan knows Verona’s story. He is one of many players who fled the island nation for a better life in the United States and a chance to play in the major leagues.

That topic was passionately debated at the “Hot Corner,” the spot in Havana’s Parque Central, where baseball fans gather at all hours of the day to argue about their favorite sport.

“This is their DNA. This is their genetic makeup,” William Hernandez Requejo said.

Herandez Requejo is a native of Santa Clara, Cuba. He now teaches international business at the University of California Irvine. He was at Parque Central on Sunday with several of his students. He said he is part of a team that is assisting Cuba’s “normalization process.”

To visit the island nation 90 miles south of Florida is to travel back in time. The architecture is old and stunning and seems as if there has not been many, if any upgrades since the 1950s. Cars from that era populate the street, many carrying fares around town.

Guindo’s taxi had one windshield wiper, and it was on the driver’s side. The speedometer didn’t work. The clock had no hands. There was a hole in the dashboard where a radio once belonged. Seat belts? Yeah, right.

The only sounds inside the old car was the rattling of the Dodge as it passed over the bumpy roads, the sound of its horn, which Guindo leaned on often and the jingle from his cellphone when it had an incoming call.

Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg said his “exhale moment” for this trip that was months in the making and underwent many changes before it was finalized earlier this month came when he boarded the charter bus early Sunday afternoon at Jose Marti International Airport that carried the first Rays party to arrive to their seaside hotel.

“I was looking for one old car and saw about 70 of them,” Sternberg said. “That’s when it hit me. OK, we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

That the Rays joined the 1999 Baltimore Orioles as the only major-league baseball teams to play in Cuba since 1959 is part of President Barack Obama’s plan to help improve relations between the two countries.

Obama reached Havana late Sunday afternoon, his motorcade blocking traffic.

“This is a transformative event,” Hernandez Requejo said. “This is baseball diplomacy.”

The eyes of the world are on Cuba this week as President Obama becomes the first sitting U.S. president since Calvin Coolidge visited 88 years ago. Obama will meet with Cuban president Raul Castro. He will address the Cuban people to talk about his vision for the future of their country and an improved relationship with the United States.

There will be a baseball game between the national team and a major-league team.

The Rolling Stones will give a free concert Friday.

“I think it’s going to be a very important event for Cuba and the United States,” Andres Perez said. “Every time the Cuban team plays an American team it is very important thing for us, the Cuban people. This is a large step in Cuban history. Obama speaks of Cuba well. This is a very historic moment for Cuba. I think the baseball game, the Rolling Stones concert is a large step in Cuban history along with Obama visiting Cuba.”

Perez, who runs a tour service for visitors, said most Cubans are in favor of a good relationship with the United States.

“That’s a very good thing,” he said. “We are good people, really.”

Adrubal Ballacio was one of the nearly 50 baseball fans who tackled the subject at the Hot Corner concerning Cuban baseball: Is it good that the better players have a chance to play in the United States? Or, should they remain in Cuba and play for their country?

Ballacio said this Cuban baseball team is very good. He also said he likes the Rays.

Cuban fans are aware of the Rays’ history. One, who came up for air after arguing about New York Mets outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, told the story of the Rays like this: They were bad, they played in the 2008 World Series, they’ve been good ever since.

Ballacio is one of the luckier Cuban baseball fans. He has a ticket to Tuesday’s invitation-only game that is expected to pack the 55,000-seat Estadio Latinomericano. He said this will be his first time he sees the Rays play. He has seen the Orioles, Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees play.

That’s something Verona couldn’t do until he reached the States.

“That doesn’t happen in Cuba,” Verona said two weeks ago through Rays interpreter George Papas.

Actually, games appeared on Cuban TV three years ago, or just after Verona and his mom left.

Before that, Cuban fans had to listen to games on the radio or follow the action through box scores that appeared in newspapers.

Tim Wendel, author of a number of baseball books including the novel, “Castro’s Curveball,” has traveled to Cuba on three occasions. The first came after the 1991 World Series. He was watching a game when the fan seated next to him asked if he could describe the Twins.

So Wendel said he proceeded to give a scouting report of each player.

“No,” the gentleman said. “I know all that. What do they look like?”

Somewhat stunned, Wendel gave as detailed a description as he could of every player.

“When I finished he had tears running down his face, and he stood up and patted me on the back and said, ‘Thank you. Now I know.’ And he left,” Wendel said. “And I though, ‘Wow, I’m in a weird part of the world where a ball team can bring tears to a guy’s eye.’ ”

Sternberg, Rays manager Kevin Cash and many of his players want to visit the Hot Corner. Rays director of travel Chris Westmoreland was there several weeks ago when he flew to Havana for the final preparations for the trip.

He walked up to a group of fans arguing baseball. When they turned to see what he wanted, he said he was with the Rays.

“Oh, Evan Longoria,” one said while pretending to hold a baseball bat.

One baseball fan on Sunday wore a Boston Red Sox cap. Another wore a Yankees cap. There was a man wearing a Philadelphia 76ers jersey. No one wore a Rays cap or shirt.

That should change this week.

Rays president Brian Auld said the Rays packed suitcases filled with team clothing to hand out to fans.

Sternberg said he was proud his team won a seven-team lottery to represent Major League Baseball. He also said the Rays were representing the United States as a whole and he Tampa Bay area in particular.

I’d like to think (the Rays are) as well or better than any professional organization that would come down here,” he said.

Obama will attend Tuesday’s game. Sternberg said he would like to meet him.

“I have a desire to, but I guess if it happens, it happens,” Sternberg said. “He’s got other business down here to take care of other than a baseball game. I would think there will be an opportunity. I would be disappointed if it never happened. By the same token I have no expectation that it actually will.”

Like Hernandez Requejo, Sternberg sees the Rays’ end of this trip as “baseball diplomacy.” This could be the renewal of the longstanding relationship between Cuba and the Major Leagues. Teams could return for exhibition games each spring. Maybe a team – the Washington Nationals have been mentioned – could train here like the Brooklyn Dodgers did a lifetime ago.

“It’s close,” Sternberg said. “There’s no question that 30 years from this will be a big part of major league baseball in some respects.”

rmooney@tampatrib.com

Twitter: @rmooneyTBO