Baseball in Cuba
Despite its American origin, baseball is strongly associated with Cuban nationalism, as it effectively replaced colonial Spanish sports such as bullfighting.
The sport spread quickly across the island nation after its introduction, with student Nemesio Guillot receiving popular credit for the game's growth in the mid-19th century.
In 1871 the Haymakers joined the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, which is regarded by many historians as a major league.
Furthermore, Cuban teams began flocking to the United States, and with it, intertwining Latino and African American baseball cultures.
This might have limited some opportunities but overall, baseball in Cuba was thriving and incorporating its own twists backed by the multi ethical ties of those who were playing it.
The young and talented team players who remained in the leagues gained physical strength by participating in the amateur games.
In Cuba's amateur baseball leagues, some of the greatest moments and players the game has ever produced on the island can be found, along with a high level of unconcealed iniquity.
[2]: 190 Segregation is traced back to the start of the 20th century when disagreement among players regarding the professionalization of the game led to a split.
The amateur game was the origin of the segregation and remained a sport played among exclusive social clubs and factory workers.
Whether the whites-only policy was a direct consequence of American influence on upper-class Cubans, or was a retention from colonial times is difficult to determine.
Children who participated in these programs were sometimes offered amenities such as more comfortable living, opportunities to travel and compete, pocket money, access to better food, etc.
[7]: 29 Rewriting Cuban baseball history by connecting the president to the glory years of the Amateur Leagues began to take shape and reflect revolutionary ideas.
Cuban baseball shed its commercial skin and sought out to advance the social and political aims of the revolution via sport.
[12]: 125 The shift from a professional to amateur system was preceded by the introduction of the Institute for Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER).
In addition to displaying Cuba's leadership to Third World countries, this would give Cubans themselves a sense of pride and feelings of nationalism for the Revolution.
The term coined to describe such a process was masividad, and sports served the purpose to educate and train the Cuban people, and another opportunity to fit in an egalitarian society that conformed to the very principles of the revolution.
[15]: 5 Although sport in general underwent a huge transformation after the revolution, it is still imperative to note that baseball continued to play a pivotal role.
After all it was Cuba's bloodline and was easy to pick up and play since it required less conditioning and more focus on the crafting skills of hitting, pitching, and strategy.
[17]: 475 As mentioned earlier, sport in post-revolutionary Cuba was utilized to not only improve health, but in doing so, citizens have become more prepared in-terms of self-defense in light of hostile policies at least in the early days of the revolution by the United States.
[3]: 109 Such assistance by Cuba underlies its commitment to socialist internationalism, which still to this day sees a bevy of Cuban sports specialists training and instructing abroad citizens of other nations.
Although members of the Cuba national team are nominally amateur, As of 1984[update] they were paid a "'sports leave'" wage determined by their principal occupation during the off-season—often less than US$2000 annually.
"[18]: 639 Other problems included bribery scandals in which coaches and player alike would fix games, which subsequently led to them being banned from baseball in Cuba.
The stands at amateur games are filled with cane cutters and factory workers looking to enjoy life after a hard day's work in the fields.
[24] The Tampa Bay Rays played the Cuba national baseball team on March 22, 2016, in Havana's Estadio Latinoamericano.
[25] In January 2019, pitcher Matthew McLaughlin joined the Plaza club in Havana's provincial league, believing himself to be the first American to play in Cuba's national baseball system in over 60 years.
While Americans may not have intended for baseball to become popular in Cuba, the sport had become a large part of the culture not just for the game but for what it represented to Cubans at the time.
While in Cuba, there was no racial segregation in the game, dark-skinned and black players were unable to play in any minor or major leagues in the United States.
According to Adrian Burgos's journal article titled, "Playing Ball in a Black and White "Field of Dreams": Afro-Caribbean Ballplayers in the Negro Leagues, 1910-1950", “No matter how powerful their swing, fleet their steps, or light their complexions, Afro-Caribbean ballplayers could not escape the United States' racial ideology.
The image of the virile African or black man became a prevalent topic or trope during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries” (Burgos, 71).
Secondly, the open interjection of morality where Mendez became 'the Cuban Demon' andvanced their threat" (Burgos, 73)[31] Eventually, this was changed through the influence of Caribbean countries and Mexico, the unavoidable skill of dark-skinned and black players, and the shift of racial segregation in the United States.
