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Winning and Losing
The World Baseball Classic is finally over, and Japan beat Cuba for the title.
A lot of the talk leading up to the tournament involved the Cuban team. Not only how they would compete against established pros, but how many, if any, of the players would defect.
Cuba defied expectations on both counts. Second place in the tournament, and no defections that we know of. A victory for fidel, some say.
Not so fast.
Despite the pronouncements from the regime at today's celebration of the players' return to Cuba that the revolution proved it's success by beating teams composed of Major League baseball players, who are the real winners and losers here?
Well, I can't really tell you who won, but it's easy to see who's losing. No matter how many games Cuba won or lost at the WBC, nothing changes inside Cuba. The people continue to lose out on real freedom, on opportunity. I wanted Cuba to lose in the WBC just so that fidel and his cronies would have nothing to celebrate.
That was selfish on my part. fidel has nothing to lose. I should have been happy for the players who do have a lot more at stake. This brings me to the subject of the defections (or lack thereof). Does the fact that no one defected mean that the players are happy in Cuba? Maybe. But I would be willing to bet a hefty amount that internal pressures and the thought of leaving behind family outweighed any reasons for the Cubans to defect.
Those thoughts came to my mind when I read today's Miami Herald story on ex-major league pitcher Eddie Oropesa, a pitcher for the Cuban National Team who defected back in 1993. Oropesa left his pregnant wife and parents back in Cuba. He didn't see them again until 3 years later.
Please click here to read the article. Afterwards, you should be able to figure out the real winners and losers.
A lot of the talk leading up to the tournament involved the Cuban team. Not only how they would compete against established pros, but how many, if any, of the players would defect.
Cuba defied expectations on both counts. Second place in the tournament, and no defections that we know of. A victory for fidel, some say.
Not so fast.
Despite the pronouncements from the regime at today's celebration of the players' return to Cuba that the revolution proved it's success by beating teams composed of Major League baseball players, who are the real winners and losers here?
Well, I can't really tell you who won, but it's easy to see who's losing. No matter how many games Cuba won or lost at the WBC, nothing changes inside Cuba. The people continue to lose out on real freedom, on opportunity. I wanted Cuba to lose in the WBC just so that fidel and his cronies would have nothing to celebrate.
That was selfish on my part. fidel has nothing to lose. I should have been happy for the players who do have a lot more at stake. This brings me to the subject of the defections (or lack thereof). Does the fact that no one defected mean that the players are happy in Cuba? Maybe. But I would be willing to bet a hefty amount that internal pressures and the thought of leaving behind family outweighed any reasons for the Cubans to defect.
Those thoughts came to my mind when I read today's Miami Herald story on ex-major league pitcher Eddie Oropesa, a pitcher for the Cuban National Team who defected back in 1993. Oropesa left his pregnant wife and parents back in Cuba. He didn't see them again until 3 years later.
Please click here to read the article. Afterwards, you should be able to figure out the real winners and losers.
posted by Robert at 9:39 PM
1 Comments:
I too, was rooting for Cuba to lose and was happy when PR gave them a beating. For me it comes from back when I was in Cuba, many times we rooted against the national teams because of the relentless pounding about "the superiority of the not-for-rent athletes". But then, as they won game after improbable game, I found myself cheering for them to go all the way. And then, a friend of mine posted the following in a message board I moderate:
"Un hombre obtuvo poder, secuestró mi país y secuestró también a los que formaban parte de una pasión nacional, este hombre 40 años despues ha acabado con todo lo que brilló en Cuba, acabó con la ciudad y su arquitectura, con la industria azucarera, con los cultivos, con la libertad de los hombres. No puedo permitir que también arrase con nuestras pasiones y me lleve a desear que mi equipo pierda, mi equipo Cuba tiene que ganar para mi felicidad y si hoy me siento tan feliz como los que desgobiernan mi país es solo una coincidencia y una muestra más de que ellos no son los dueños únicos de las cosas que más valen y me gustan de mi país, Cuba es de todos, no les pertenece a ellos solos."
I think he said it perfectly.
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