Cuban Baseball Report

I spent a couple of weeks in Cuba in February visiting a handful of towns between Havana and Holguin. I saw stickball games in progress on side streets and plazas in every town I visited. The bat was typically a broomstick or similar wooden pole. You rarely see an actual baseball; kids most often use a 2" length of 2" diameter heavy grey plastic plumbing pipe. Sometimes they somehow wrap it in an old sock or rag but most often, it is just the piece of pipe. In Camaguey I stood about where a 3rd baseman would stand to take a photo of the batter and he sent a line drive whistling 6 inches over my head, possibly for disturbing their game. I don't think I could ever bring myself to make a barehand grab of a pipeball line drive.

I took 3 baseballs to give to kids on the street. The friend I was visiting saw them in my suitcase and alternately begged and demanded that I give them all to her. She ended up with two. In Holguin I went to a plaza where LP claims you can usually find a stickball game in progress. On that particular hot, muggy day there was no game to be found. However, on the edge of the plaza under some massive shade trees an old man was pitching batting practice to his 8 year old grandson. They were using a piece of pipe and a red plastic bat. While the boy was chasing down a foul ball(pipe), I walked up to the man and presented him with my remaining ball. I will never forget the look of gratitude, excitement and appreciation on the man's face. As the grandson returned to the batter's box, the grandfather held up the ball for him to see. Likewise, I will never forget the look on the boy's face as he dashed toward us to examine his new found treasure.

There were two pickup games I witnessed where they were using real ball and bat. One was near Gomez monument across from the Castillo de San Salvador. The other was just SE of Havana where two main highways intersect. They are connected by what I suspect might be the only cloverleaf in Cuba. One of the leaves formed a bowl that was almost exactly the size and shape of a high school ballpark.

Later, back in Havana, I went to a Saturday night Industriales game. I arrived at 7 for the 7:30 game and the stadium was dark. I was directed to the foreigners ticket office where you pay about $3 for a ticket rather than the 20 or 30 cents that Cuban nationals pay. I had a fairly sophisticated camera and tripod with me and walked around the largely deserted bleachers in the vast stadium. I believe there are 58,000 seats and there is no upper deck. To accomodate 58,000 the outfield bleachers in all fields extend outward forever leaving spectators with a view similar to the one you get from the Rockpile in Coors Field in Denver.

The lights finally started to come on at 7:15 and the last bank lit up just as the managers and umpires assembled at home plate. A few minutes prior to that I was passing in the aisle behind the Industriales dugout. A gentleman who controlled traffic at a gate between the field and the grandstand motioned to me. I went over to him and he asked if I was a photographer. I said in English which I'm sure he didn't understand that on this particular night I was indeed a photographer. He pointed toward the photographer's well on the home plate side of the third base dugout and indicated that I was welcome to sit there.

Before spreading out my camera gear, I waited for the official Havana media photographers to arrive so that I didn't position myself in a way that interfered with their official duties. But no one else showed and I had the well to myself. Just before the game began I took a photo of one of the Havana coaches, a very black and older man. I showed him the digital version and he indicated he'd like a print of it. In my camera bag I had a small portable battery powered postcard printer and soon produced a print for him.

He returned with a brand new Industriales cap which I presumed he was giving me in return for the print. However, a nearby fan who spoke a little English told me he wanted the equivalent of $20US for it. Being this was my 2nd to last day in Cuba, I was nearly out of funds and hadn't budgeted for a $20 cap. We finally agreed on $10.