Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Pitchers and catchers report … to the State.

El Nuevo Herald:

Isolation and mystery surround the Cuban team

BY LUIS E. RANGEL / EL NUEVO HERALD
SAN DIEGO (translated)

Like an inaccessible island, that was the Cuban team before and after their first game of the second round on U.S. soil.

The veil of mystery surrounding the Antillean squad, regarded as state property, became even thicker and more intractable yesterday afternoon at Petco Park, where Cuba continues its participation in the World Baseball Classic.

The 6-0 defeat at the hands of Japan didn’t help either.

With the same speed with which they fanned on eight occasions before Daisuke Matsuzaka, the Cuban team left the premises. “They left right after the game. They didn’t shower or anything. They went quickly to the hotel”, said a World Baseball Classic’s security official.

The manager Higinio Velez stayed behind and faced the press for about five minutes before leaving the site.

Cuban suspicion was present even before the team was selected to come to Petco Park.
The instructions were clear: no contact with the press before the game.

An attempt by a handful of journalists trying to contact the team doctor, Antonio Castro Soto, the son of Fidel Castro, was prevented by Velez.

“Get out of here. You cannot be here. Go away I’m going to call security to throw you out!’’ said the Cuban manager.

The area was not supposed to be off limits to the media, but a member of the tournament’s security group supported Vélez.

The officer said, “I was told that the power rests with the team.”

Cuba brought its own set of tournament rules, which make it unique among other teams.

Unlike others teams where each player has his own room, the Cuban organizing committee decided to put two players in each room.

Likewise, Cuba, as it did in Mexico during the first round, held no batting practice before the game on the field, but instead in the internal batting cages boxes, which are indoors.

The differences don’t end there.

Not until an hour before the game, when all non-players must leave the field, does the Cuban team take infield practice.

Cuba became the only team in the tournament in which the manager is not monitoring batting practice, but instead making sure that the media do not talk to the club’s medical team and that the players do not mingle with fans and acquaintances.

Still, Frederich Cepeda was taken up by the noisy fans who, dressed in the Cuban flag and were above the first base dugout, they asked him, one of the best players of the tournament thus far, for autographs.

The Cuban team will be in the U.S. until at least Thursday. But the aura of silence and secrecy with which it wants to surround this talented set of athletes will remain much longer.

Henry @ Babalu Blog has much more on this.