Cuba's Baseball Conundrum

On Display in the WBC!
{Updated: Saturday, March 4th, 2017}

     The 2017 World Baseball Classic, which is held every four years, begins Monday, March 6th. The opening game pits Israel against Korea in Seoul, South Korea. The next day Cuba plays two-time champ Japan in the Tokyo Dome. The other 12 participating nations are the United States, Taiwan, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Netherlands, China, Canada, Colombia, Italy, Australia, and Mexico. The 16 teams are divided into four, 4-team divisions and the division winners head to Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles for the semi-final and championship games. In 2013 in the previous title game, the Dominican Republic beat Puerto Rico. Those two teams are again among the top favorites because they are loaded with superstars from the U. S. Major Leagues. All 30 of the U. S. Major League teams have state-of-the-art, year-round baseball complexes in the Dominican Republic where just about every male child longs for a future multi-million-dollar baseball contract, which are doled out like candy by the 30 MLB teams. Puerto Rico, a U. S. Territory in the Caribbean, also has preferential treatment and its WBC team this year is so stocked with Major League stars that it has not just one but two young superstar shortstops -- Francisco Lindor of the Cleveland Indians and Carlos Correa of the Houston Astros. In past years, to win international tournaments -- such as the Pan-Am Games, the Olympics, and the WBC -- nations knew they had to beat powerful Cuban teams, but not anymore although the island of Cuba still produces the best per capita baseball talent and also features the most loyal and fervent fans.

       But in baseball as in many other arenas Cuba is royally screwed by an American Cuban policy that has been dictated since 1959 by the transplanted remnants who fled to the U. S. after the Cuban Revolution ousted the vile, U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship. Thus, while super teams like the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico can use its stars from the U. S. Major Leagues, Cuba cannot. And the ultra-rich 30 Major League teams have utilized a baseball pipeline from Cuba...largely greased by human traffickers...to siphon off Cuba's vast array of baseball talent, including teenagers who can command guaranteed contracts worth $80 million or so dollars, such as what Boston was willing to pay for switch-hitter Yoan Moncada, who is now 21-years-old and rated a super prospect with the Chicago White Sox. Of course, as is often the case, unsavory agents and menacing human traffickers take full advantage of U. S. laws related to Cuba to also become instant millionaires from baseball contracts and other endeavors. For example, the three Cuban Major League stars depicted above in the "Pipeline" graphic are, left-to-right, Yoenis Cespedes of the New York Mets, Yasiel Puig of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Jose Abreu of the Chicago White Sox. They are all millionaires many times over; Cespedes' latest contract with the Mets averages out at a guaranteed $30 million A YEAR for years to come. But all three encountered dangerous human traffickers on their way to the Majors. Puig was imprisoned and direly threatened in Mexico till his traffickers got their share of his money. U. S. laws designed to hurt Cuba are bonanzas for criminals.

This is Jose Abreu when he was a superstar for Cuba.

        This is Jose Abreu as the superstar multi-millionaire first baseman for the Chicago White Sox. But on his journey from Cuba to Chicago, Jose also had a harrowing experience with human traffickers as he was forced to recount this week in a federal courtroom in Miami, testimony that made headlines in USA Today this week -- March 2nd, 2017. Jose testified under oath that he "ate a chunk of a false passport while flying to the USA to cover up his illegal travel as a part of a Cuban ballplayer smuggling operation," to quote Thursday's USA Today. But Cuban players, again because of the nuances associated with longstanding Batistiano-type U. S. laws related only to Cuba, can amass far more upfront money than other players because Cubans like Abreu could sign with the highest bidder from the 30 Major League teams while other players, including Americans, only sign with the team that drafts them, cutting out competitive bidding from the other 29 teams. So such Cuban-only U. S. laws also provide extra millions to human traffickers, which is something Major League baseball and even some federal U. S. courts are trying real hard to correct.

      Meanwhile, America's Batistiano-type laws related to Cuba have depleted the island's baseball talent to such an extent that in international competitions, such as the WBC, Cuba is relegated to also-ran status instead of being the favorite. Yet, Cuba still tries to compete and it still has one of baseball's best managers, Victor Mesa. But, with U. S. teams and traffickers snatching up even Cuba's best teenage baseball players, the only superstar prospects Cuba will have in the upcoming WBC event is 21-year-old center-fielder Victor Mesa Jr. and 19-year-old outfielder Yoelkis Cespedes, the half-brother of New York Mets' superstar Yoenis Cespedes. So -- unlike the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rican teams that are loaded with Major League stars -- Cuba will not have any of its vast array of Major League players playing for Cuba in the WBC...and, for sure, the Major League scouts and human traffickers at this year's WBC will be salivating to sign Cuban youngsters like Victor Mesa Jr. and Yoelkis Cespedes to huge contracts.

      This is outfielder Rusney Castillo who began playing baseball in his native Cuba when he was a teenager. At age 26 three years ago Rusney signed a $72.5 million contract with the Boston Red Sox.

      For the past three years, Rusney Castillo has been a total flop with the Boston Red Sox and their minor league affiliates. That's the bad news. The good news is that every penny of the $72.5 million is guaranteed whether or not Rusney...who turns 30-years-old in July...ever gets another base hit or catches another fly ball, and the rich Boston Red Sox don't give a hoot about wasting 72.5 million dollars on a nice Cuban!! 

      Cuba's best veteran in the upcoming WBC is Frederich Cepeda, this 36-year-old outfielder. In past international games, Frederich has been every bit as good as many of his former Cuban teammates who are now superstars in the U. S. Major Leagues but...because Cuban counter-revolutionaries dictate U. S. Cuban laws...those ex-teammates cannot play with him for Cuba. On the other hand, U. S. citizens with foreign ethnicities can play for the U. S. OR for their ancestral countries...so young superstar shortstops Francisco Lindor and Carlos Correa, both of whom had such options, elected to play for Puerto Rico in the WBC instead of the United States. Frederich Cepeda could now be a multi-millionaire playing in the United States Major Leagues but for some reason he has chosen to remain loyal to Cuba.

       In addition to Cepeda, Cuba in the WBC will have 30-year-old Alfredo Despaigne who, for over a decade, has been a star in Cuba's pro league and on all of Cuba's international teams. Alfredo has made big money playing pro baseball in Japan but he returns to play in Cuba's professional league and for Cuba's national teams, so far declining overtures from traffickers, agents and scouts to play in the U. S.

      The manager of the U. S. team in the WBC will be Jim Leyland, who in 1997 managed the Miami Marlins to a surprise World Series victory over the Cleveland Indians. Although the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rican teams are again loaded with Major League talent, I predict Leyland's U. S. team will win this year's WBC championship. He has four of the best Major League outfielders in Adam Jones, Andrew McCutchen, Giancarlo Stanton and Christian Yelich; and he has arguably the best Major League shortstop in Brandon Crawford; and he has arguably the Major League's two best catchers in Buster Posey and Jonathan Lucroy; and he has two All-Star second basemen in Ian Kinsler and Daniel Murphy; and he has two superstar first basemen in Paul Goldschmidt and Eric Hosmer; and he has three superstar third basemen in Nolan Arenado, Matt Carpenter and Alex Bregman. For starting pitchers Leyland can call on Major League stars like Michael Fulmer, Sonny Gray, Danny Duffy, and Chris Archer. And in the bullpen the U. S. will have superstars like lefty Andrew Miller. If Leyland can't win the 2017 World Baseball Classic in Los Angeles with that mighty roster, his status as a Hall of Fame manager should be called into question.

       But Cuba's legendary Hall of Fame-caliber manager Victor Mesa -- on a level playing field -- could battle it out toe-to-toe with the USA, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the other WBC teams this month. But in international baseball competition, as in a plethora of other forums, Cuba is denied a level playing field, a fact that the current 191-to-0 vote in the United Nations confirms. But even such worldwide unanimity cannot compete against a dictatorial handful of Batistiano disciples who are backed by the world's economic and military superpower, the United States of America, and by pusillanimous generations of Americans since the 1950s that routinely genuflect to the Batistianos. Victor Mesa and millions of totally innocent Cubans on the island deserve to be able to compete on level playing fields and Victor Mesa's upcoming defeat in the World Baseball Classic will be a shameful and salient reflection of that fact.

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