U.S. and Cuba begin baseball diplomacy

Orioles owner on mission to bring major leaguers to Cuba

January 16, 1999
Web posted at: 8:49 p.m. EST (0149 GMT)

HAVANA (CNN) -- A U.S. baseball delegation arrived in Cuba late Friday to work out the rules for possible exhibition games in Cuba and Baltimore.

"We think baseball is a great facilitator. It brings people together, and that's the underlying purpose of our visit," said Peter Angelos, owner of the Baltimore Orioles team, which is seeking two exhibition games with the highly rated Cuban national team. "We appreciate the hospitality of the Cuban government and our own government's support of the two games," he said.

Private talks with Cuban sports officials were planned for Saturday. And the delegation was tentatively scheduled to attend a Cuban baseball game on Sunday, authorities said. Angelos hopes to arrange one game in Cuba and one at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore.

Also in the delegation of roughly a dozen are Sandy Alderson, executive vice president of operations for Major League Baseball, and Tom Garofalo, director of charity efforts in Cuba for the Baltimore-based Catholic Relief Services.

President Bill Clinton announced he would let the Orioles play a Cuban team as part of an initiative to increase relations between the American and Cuban people while maintaining the three-decade U.S. economic embargo against the communist government. The plan would let more Americans send money to Cubans, offer direct mail service and expand direct charter flights between the two countries.

Havana has condemned Clinton's announcements as a publicity stunt intended to stem growing domestic and international opposition to the "economic war" on Cuba.

But the government did not reject the details of some measures. And the speaker of Cuba's parliament, Ricardo Alarcon, hinted the baseball exchange could proceed if funds go to a neutral cause like Central American hurricane victims. The U.S. preference is that any money go to Catholic Services' Cuban counterpart, Caritas.

The exhibition games, first proposed in 1996, were earlier rejected by the State Department because of the trade embargo. No major league team has played on the island since the Brooklyn Dodgers held spring training in Havana in 1947.

Most Cubans, including President Fidel Castro, are avid baseball fans, and an exhibition game here would receive wide public backing.

"We'd love to see our squad measure up against these major league teams," fan Andres Correoso said in Havana's Central Park, where Cuban baseball enthusiasts gather daily to discuss the sport. Last weekend Alarcon brought up another important negotiation point for the two countries to work out -- wood or aluminum bats.

Cuban officials may be wary of sending the country's best baseball players to the United States for a game. The last two times the Cuban national team played in the United States, a player defected and signed with a major league club.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.