MIAMI, United States. — This Wednesday the 62nd National Baseball Series started in Cuba and the inauguration of the event left an event that is no longer surprising: a paratrooper landed at the Mártires de Barbados stadium, in the province of Granma, carrying an image of Fidel Castro.
Despite the successive calls from the Cuban regime not to politicize the recently concluded World Baseball Classic, the biggest sporting event in the country could not begin with any image other than that of the Maximum Leader coming down from the sky of Granma to seal the start of the championship.
If during the Classical the Team Asere It was used over and over again as a communist propaganda weapon, at the beginning of the National Series it was no different.
As might be expected, the singular event has already begun to generate numerous jokes on social networks.
“What nerve! As there are many who say that politics should not be mixed with sports. Here they mix everything with politics and sport is no exception,” Jesús Martín Rodríguez, a Cuban resident of Sancti Spíritus, commented on the Facebook page “Shoot him even if you strike out.”
“That politics should not be mixed with sport? Speak now, haters,” replied Abraham Garcia, from Havana.
In strictly sporting terms, the opening match of the Series ended with a victory for the Sorrels of Granmadefending champions, against the Cocodrilos de Matanzas, finalists of the previous season, with score of three races for two.
The people from Granma had the contest of the fourth hitter from Team Asere, Alfredo Despaigne, the best hitter of the game with two hits in three times at bat and an RBI.
In addition to Granma, the casts of Pinar del Río, Industriales, Mayabeque, Villa Clara, Sancti Spíritus, Santiago de Cuba and Isla de la Juventud triumphed on the opening day.
