HAVANA | The people hurried through the closed-down streets, winding down one block recognizing an independence movement and another honoring a revered poet. They were clad in not only their reds and blues but a variety of other hues, donning ball caps and clutching knapsacks in preparation for a day at the park.
It didn’t matter if only a select few would be allowed into Estadio Latinoamericano, with tickets distributed by the Cuban government on an invitation-only basis. They wanted to see and feel a different game, their national team against the Tampa Bay Rays, the first involving a Major League Baseball team in Cuba in 17 years.
What unfolded was a celebration of all things baseball, a game feted in a number of ways — including the presence of President Obama and Cuban counterpart Raul Castro, who sat in the front row, side-by-side, with other luminaries for parts of three innings.
Fans mobbed for foul balls and mugged for photos. They danced along to the salsa rhythms of Silvio Rodriguez and Pancho Amat. They hung with their team until the final outs, with the Rays emerging with the 4-1 victory.
“They were into it every pitch,” said Rays first baseman James Loney, who had an RBI single and a two-run home run. “You could feel it, especially over there at first. You could hear a lot of people over there. It was intense.”
Celebrated as the pinnacle — at least for now — of relations between the United States and Cuba, the game was expected to highlight two cultures but truly only demonstrated one.
One section directly behind home plate was reserved for Cuba’s top athletes — a number of boxers, runners and volleyball players all wearing national team gear. Another section, near the Rays’ dugout on the third base side, was reserved for local officials. Enveloping the batter’s eye in center field were sections of students from a local military school, all wearing white shirts and dark pants.
Obama and Castro arrived in tandem roughly 30 minutes before the game began, taking their seats in an area of the stadium renovated by Major League Baseball just to the right of home plate. They were preceded by a number of officials from both countries, including Secretary of State John Kerry and Cuban envoy Jeffrey DeLaurentis, as well as Cuban first vice president Miguel Diaz-Canel and the president of Cuba’s parliament, Estebano Lazo Hernandez.
Once the two had settled, players from both teams approached the two and offered their respects, Rays players shaking Obama’s hand. The leaders stayed fewer than three innings; Castro departed after the end of the second, and Obama left after the third, having spent the previous 15 minutes speaking to ESPN’s live broadcast crew.
“It was awesome,” Rays pitcher Chris Archer said, referring to the brief meeting with Obama. “He complimented me not only on my ability, but the way that I carry myself, the way that I speak, and coming from him, there’s really no higher compliment.”
Once the Obama administration moved to relax some parts of the longstanding trade embargo on Cuba last year, MLB sought permission to strengthen its own ties with the island nation’s baseball federation. The Rays were among a number of teams to express interest in playing a spring training game against Cuba’s national team and won a lottery to do so; a goodwill tour in mid-December that included not only several high-ranking baseball officials but also a mix of Cuban and American players helped plant the seeds for such an event.
Players brought baseball equipment with them that they planned to donate to locals, with catcher Rene Rivera and his wife, Mariel Perez, putting together 50 gift bags for children that included toiletries and other everyday supplies.
The Rays planned the game to offer as little disruption to their regular-season preparations as possible, which led to several regulars, including pitcher Matt Moore, up next in the rotation, earning the start. Included in the lineup was Dayron Varona, a Cuban native who, in 2013, left the island with his mother to pursue a professional baseball career.
Varona was politely applauded by the crowd upon his introduction and again when he left, pulled out of the game by manager Kevin Cash with one out in the third inning to amplify the crowd’s reaction.
“It was a really wonderful thing that they did, the way they received me today,” Varona said through an interpreter. “They received me like a Cuban and that’s what I hoped for. It was very emotional.”
Though the Rays held a three-run lead after four innings, tacking on another in the eighth, a home run by Rudy Reyes with one out in the ninth gave Cuba a measure of satisfaction. The crowd had thinned by then, but to no surprise, Reyes’ home run, and Juan Carlos Torriente’s ensuing double, ratcheted the excitement to one final crescendo.
“It was some kind of an experience,” said Moore, who exchanged jerseys with Torriente after the game. “It was something that I’ll definitely never forget.”
• Zac Boyer can be reached at zboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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