Cuban link may bring baseball titans

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This article was published 06/08/2010 (5521 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The mayor’s desire to soak up a bit of the Caribbean during Folklorama could lead to some of the best baseball players in the world coming to town for an exhibition game against the Winnipeg Goldeyes.

Sam Katz, who is also the owner of the Northern League franchise, visited the Cuban pavilion at the Billy Mosienko Arena earlier this week. Its co-ordinator, Esperanza Gonzalez, told him she has a contact with the Havana Industriales, the newly crowned champions of the Cuban baseball league, and could arrange to bring them north possibly as soon as next summer.

Even though such a contest is still in the "embryonic" stages, Katz said he’s excited about the prospect.

"It would be a phenomenal experience, a wonderful opportunity that sports fans, not just baseball fans, would appreciate," he said.

"It reminds me of bringing the Toronto Blue Jays to Winnipeg Stadium in the early ’90s. Cuban baseball players are the crème de la crème. I remember the excitement of the Pan Am Games in 1999 (where Cuba won gold) very well."

Gonzalez said she will follow up with Katz after the Cuban pavilion serves its last Cuba libre on Saturday evening.

"Baseball is our main sport. I think it would be something nice to promote. It would value our culture. (Winnipeg’s Cuban community) wants to do more than one event in the year," she said, referring to Folklorama.

She said she has spoken with Cuba Sport, the government body that would set up a possible trip, and been told it wouldn’t be a problem.

"It would be good revenue for the team," she said.

The Goldeyes would no doubt be in tough against the Industriales, the Cuban league’s equivalent to the New York Yankees. Gonzalez said seven or eight of the Industriales players are also members of the Cuban national team, an international juggernaut that has won one gold and two silvers at the last three Summer Olympics. Currently ranked first in the world, it has also won 10 straight Pan Am Games gold medals.

Cuba native Rudy Arias, the Goldeyes’ first base coach and catching instructor, said the Industriales are in contention to be the best team in the world every year. He knows of what he speaks, since he has spent about 15 years as a coach in the American League, including two with the Yankees and his father used to play in the Cuban league.

"After the Cuban revolution, the Industriales were all I heard about," he said.

"Those guys will come out to play 100 per cent, there’s no doubt. They’d be coming over here to win. They don’t care who they’re playing. I’ve seen them up close."

Ever the promoter, Katz, said if the Industriales are able to come to Winnipeg next year, they could make the city one stop on a cross-Canada barnstorming tour.

"Who knows what it could be in the end?" he said.

geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca