Saturday, May 11, 2013

Baseball and Cuba

I’ll admit it. Watching the behavior of Cuban fans at Havana’s Estadio Latino Americano was worth the 16-hour layover in Miami. If only I would have paid better attention during the “Escuchando” section of Sr. Powell’s high school Spanish class than perhaps I could have understood the series of obscenities directed at the starting pitcher of Los Industriales during their 14-5 loss to the Isla de Juventud.                  

Fortunately watching the hand motions and hearing the volume of the crowd was all the indication I needed. Baseball isn’t declining in Cuba, contrary to the government’s wishes.

And I thought WSU fans were rabid. To think those at Havana’s Estadio Latino Americano were sober. No beer is allowed in the stadium to curtail violence, I’ve been told. That didn't step the aisle vendors from handing out pieces of grilled chicken to spectators willing to pay a few bucks for the nation's finest cuisine.

Thanks again to Devin from New York – a Jew in Cuba to bring supplies to local synagogues – for the smuggled beer and lighter for my Cohiba. It was almost like a WSU football game in late August.   

Minus the chain-smoking.

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