Los Industriales- Athletes Playing a Slightly Different Game - Saturday, May 11th

Los Industriales- Athletes Playing a Slightly different Game Saturday, May 11th   “El Triunfo Estara En La Suma Del Esfuerzo de Todos.”  In English, it means triumph is the sum of all our struggles.  The billboard is only one of the many examples of the socialist propaganda that decorates Cuba and appears outside El Estadio Latina Americano, the city’s main baseball stadium.

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Los Industriales- Athletes Playing a Slightly Different Game

Madison Horner
reporting from Havana, Cuba
 Saturday, May 11^th

  
 “El Triunfo Estara En La Suma Del Esfuerzo de Todos.”  In English, it means triumph is the sum of all our struggles.

The billboard is only one of the many examples of the socialist propaganda that decorates Cuba and appears outside El Estadio Latina Americano, the city’s main baseball stadium.

On our second day in Havana, locals and tourists alike packed the stadium to watch the local team, Los Industriales, compete in a three-day National Playoff series.  In many ways, it was like going to a Mariners game. Men and women wearing blue jerseys with large bags of refreshments and souvenirs strapped to their chests shouted through the stands, a little league team clad in matching uniforms and caps sat with their parents behind the dugout, and the sound of chanting fans and blow horns echoed around us.  It felt a lot like home, granted deep fried empanadas replaced hot dogs and the air was filled with the smell of cigars rather than popcorn. Scattered throughout the stands, I saw a Cardinals hat, a Giants jersey and, of course, a Yankees t-shirt. It was clear that despite language barriers and cultural differences, the love of baseball is a piece of the cultural puzzle that connects us all.

For the players, however, baseball is a very different game.  Unlike the celebrity athletes in the U.S. who negotiate million dollar contracts, baseball players in Cuba struggle financially to make ends meet.  The government owns the teams, and like most other professionals here, the players live off of food rations and government subsidized goods.  Additionally, there is no wage disparity; each player earns the same amount. The level of competition, or lack thereof, is a repercussion of the socialist system. Unlike their counter-parts in the U.S., Cuban players aren’t competing for the highest paycheck.  At the national level, an athlete must accept that this is as good as it’s going to get— unless, of course, they choose to defect. Our tour guide, Julio, suggested this is why the best pitchers in the United States have better stats than their counterparts in Cuba. Players that defect from Cuba to play MLB have to learn a much faster, and very different game.