Cuba Is Losing Its Love & Fame For Baseball?

As U. S. Sanctions Take A Toll!!

    The 65th Caribbean Baseball Series is currently being held in two Major League-caliber stadiums in Caracas. Just like it won three Olympic Gold Medals in a row in baseball, Cuba once dominated events like the "Caribe Series"...but no longer. The 2023 Series is now in its 5th day and the 8 nations will continue playing until the Title Game on February 10th, 2023. After losing 5-4 to Colombia today {Feb. 6th-2023}, Cuba has the worst record at 1-and-4 and Cuba earlier embarrassed its baseball reputation with a 20-3 loss to host Venezuela. The other 7 teams -- Dominion Republic, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Curacao, Puerto Rico, and Panama -- appear quite competitive...led by Venezuela and Mexico with 3-1 records while the favorite Dominicans are just 2-2. The games are being well-attended and some are being televised worldwide by ESPN Deportes. Last night viewers in primetime Sunday watched a brilliantly contested game as Venezuela defeated the Dominican Republic 3-2 with a walk-off hit in the last of the 12th inning of a game that was 0-0 after 9 innings.

   Yes, the Caribbean Series is being played in two Major League-caliber baseball stadiums in Caracas. That is interesting considering that Venezuela, a close ally of Cuba, has long been under massive U. S. economic sanctions that massively affect its economy, including how it trades with other nations. Back in the 1900s, including in the 1940s and 1950s when the U.S.-friendly Batista dictatorship ruled Cuba, the island per capita produced the best baseball players in the world and there was much talk that the U. S. Major Leagues would soon have a team in baseball-loving Havana, but by 1952 a burgeoning anti-Batista/anti-US revolution began in Cuba, ending the chance of Havana getting a Major League team. Now in 2023...although tightly sanctioned by the U. S...both Cuba and Venezuela are still sending a plethora of Major League superstars to the 30 U. S. teams where guaranteed long-term salaries of $40-million-a-year are commonplace. All 30 Major League teams have year-around world-class facilities in the Dominican Republic to keep massively training young Dominicans to become superstar Major Leaguers, but at the same time the U. S. has huge sanctions against Cuba & Venezuela, but both somehow also keep sending huge numbers of players to the U. S. Major Leagues.

   In that milieu, when the Caribbean Series ends on February 10th the attention will shift to the World Baseball Classic that starts on March 8, 2023. All of the world's Top Twenty baseball powers will play in the 2023 WBC -- including the top Caribbean nations as well as the United States, Japan, etc. And this year the WBC will be more powerful than ever because now Major League superstars...including many players who now have guaranteed deals paying them upwards of $300 & $400 millions in long-term contracts. The NY Mets, for example, have two pitchers -- Verlander & Scherzer -- that are each being paid salaries of $43.3 million for the 2023 season.

     Above is the potential batting order that the Dominican Republic can use in next month's 20-nation World Baseball Classic. All nine players above are Major League stars...and the top seven are extremely well-paid Superstars!!!! Many parents in the Dominican Republic are lavishly taking advantage of the state-of-the-art and very expensive year-around baseball facilities being lavishly funded by all of the 30 U. S. Major League teams. The WBC line-up shown above includes players with $300+ guaranteed million dollar contracts, a reason that 4-year-old boys in the DR are already starting serious baseball practices.

     This is the batting order that the U. S. might use in the World Baseball Classic and baseball fans can easily see that all nine starters above are Superstars. Mike Trout, the Center Fielder, for example, is being paid $430 million on his guaranteed contract with the Los Angeles Angels; the 9th-place hitter for the U. S. will be shortstop Tim Anderson of the Chicago White Sox and he is a two-time American League Batting Champion, etc.!!

    Other teams in the WBC will also have many Major League superstars...including Panama, Japan, China, Puerto Rico, Colombia, etc. Even the Netherlands team has several Major League stars, including a shortstop {Xander Bogaerts, born 30 years ago in Aruba} who just signed a new guaranteed $280 million contract with the San Diego Padres, a team that already had two young WBC players  -- Juan Soto & Fernando Tatis Jr. -- signed to guaranteed contracts worth more than $300 million each. And this time even Cuba's WBC team will include MLB stars!! The potential Cuban line-up in the WBC, as shown above, includes Major Leaguers such as Luis Robert in Center Field and Yoan Moncada at Third Base, stars with the Chicago White Sox. Cuba's first game in the World Baseball Classic will be in faraway Taiwan on March 8th against the Netherlands, which has 4 Major Leaguers including the very rich Xander Bogaerts.

    While most Major League teams are allowing their Superstars to play in the World Baseball Classic, Ronald Acuna Jr. -- the Superstar Center Fielder for the Atlanta Braves -- is being denied a chance to play for his native Venezuela. The Braves are worried he will get injured before the Major League season begins. As shown above, Acuna is begging the Braves to allow him to play in the WBC for a very strong Venezuelan team.

     And, yes, even Cuba might have a strong team in the World Baseball Classic starting in March...but the ultra-powerful Dominicans and Americans, with all of those obscene salaries, figure to fight for the championship after they both survive some strong competition. As the headline above indicates, for some reason the U. S. has chosen to ease its harsh Sanctions, Embargoes, and Blockades against Cuba enough to permit the besieged island nation to use some Cuban-born Major League players, perhaps giving Cuba a chance to compete somewhat fairly in the WBC. Incredible!!

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