HAVANA TIMES — With the Toronto Pan American Games right around the corner (July 10-26), Cuban baseball authorities announced on Friday the 24-member squad that will try to recover the crown they held from 1971–2011.
It was at the 2011 Guadalajara, Mexico games that Cuba finished a disappointing third to Canada and the USA.
The island has lost dozens of prospects and top players over the last decade as they abandoned the country to seek contracts mainly with US Major League clubs or their affiliates.
Nonetheless, the Cubans can still field a respectable baseball team for international events and have a solid chance to battle the top positions.
Most of the announced team will play exhibition games in North Carolina with a US university selection from July 1-8 as a tune up for Toronto.
The Cubans will also play practice games against Nicaragua on June 21-25 in Havana.
At Toronto, Cuba will debut on July 11 against Colombia, followed by games against the USA, Puerto Rico and the defending champion Canadians. They finish out the qualifying round against the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. The top four teams will advance to the semifinals.
Catchers (3): Yulexis La Rosa, Yosvani Alarcón and Frank Camilo Morejón.
Infielders (6): Alexander Malleta, Raúl González, Luis Yander La O, Yordan Manduley, Yorbis Borroto and Rudy Reyes.
Outfielders (5): Alfredo Despaigne, Yadiel Hernández, Frederich Cepeda, Roel Santos and José Adolis García.
Pitchers (10): Ismel Jiménez, Yosvany Torres, Erlis Casanova, Yander Guevara, Freddy Asiel Álvarez, Yoanni Yera, Liván Moinelo, Héctor Manuel Mendoza, Lázaro Blanco y Yunier Cano.
Manager: Roger Machado
I know a guy like that too. They are the exception however.
By marriage?…..duh that makes you an expert on your wonderful wife….NOT
Cuba…..and certainly NOT baseball….if you want some expertise….I was in Cuba 1958….first time….been there many many times since….played baseball down there…..sponsored kids team….very good friend with Ismael Jiminez
For 12 years….asked him…with respect….if he would ever consider “jumping ship” to go and pla MLB…..he would have received in the Millions of $$..
He said ” NO NEVER”……”family is more important than$$$”…. Ismael is currently in Toronto for Pan Am games…..
I’m not in the USA but I lived there, in the “Belly of the Monster” for 8 years in the 60’s. While there I worked as a civil rights activist, a student and union organizer and Viet Nam War resistor. I allowed the USA to draft me and spent one year being the biggest pain in the ass of the US Army I could be (“Be All You Can Be”) as a “Security Risk”. I escaped before they arrested me on trumped-up and not so trumped-up charges and though I continued to live in “Yuma” for 8 months, they never caught me. The best step I ever took was across the Canadian Border. I was offered USA citizenship two years before, when the rest of my family applied and were given it, I’m proud to say I turned it down. So I know the USA from inside out, from Miami up the Eastern Seaboard (N. Carolina, Virginia, DC, Baltimore MD. Philly, Union City, NY) all the way to Boston, then Georgia and Alabama, Texas, Western Pennsylvania, Iowa, Minnesota, California and Oregon. I lived and worked in these places not vacationed there and that intimate knowledge of the USA Government and Society is what makes me defend my Country and the Cuban Government against all the propaganda of “The Evil Empire” that you disseminate. Want to know anything else about me? I fought and was wounded in Chile resisting Pinochet’s Coup against the democratically elected Presidente Salvador Allende, which was orchestrated, planned and aided by the USA, and the Canadians gave asylum, medical treatment and brought me back here under diplomatic protection.
About you now, what exactly is your motivation for poo-pooing Cuba and how many of you are there…
By marriage.
Do the power outages in Gaza make the power outages in Cuba okay?