The leaks, the dropouts and the drought of results are the current referent of the crisis that Cuban baseball is going through. “Many athletes are leaving because there is no insurance and they don’t have the problems resolved,” acknowledged the Vegueros pre-selection coach, Juan Charles Diaz.
In interview for the official media cubadebate, Charles Díaz said that “logistics must be improved” because on the Island “there will always be talent.” This veteran and Physical Education teacher lamented the lack of “necessary accompaniment” for the athletes. “There are those who don’t know how to do things and don’t call people when they should be and when they have to be put in their place. That also influences.”
According to figures from journalist Francys Romero, author of the book The dream and the reality: stories of the emigration of Cuban baseball (1960-2018)last year at least 120 Cuban baseball players they left the island “through various routes”. Among that exodus is the pitching coach of Granma Ciro Silvino Licea and the natural manager of Isla de la Juventud Ifreidi Coss Gómez.
“There are those who don’t know how to do things and don’t call people when they should be and when they have to be put in their place. That also influences”
“I am one of those who believes that Cuban baseball can recover, but there must be more support,” said Charles Díaz, with experience as a coach in 14 championships in Cuba. “Athletes begin to realize that their salary is not enough to support their families or they have housing and transportation problems, like everyone else in the country, so they begin to see other possibilities abroad.”
The Island stopped being attractive for the development of young baseball players. A total of nine baseball players have emigrated from the team that participated in the U-15 World Cup and that won silver in the event held last September in Hermosillo (Mexico): Ronald Elías Terrero, Alejandro Prieto, Segian Pérez, Ernest Machado, Dulieski Ferrán , Alex Acosta, Jonathan Valle, Christian de Jesus Zamora and Yosniel Menendez.
Charles Díaz regrets those casualties. “Before, the accomplished athletes left, now they take them 14 and 15 years old. And in Cuba there are good coaches who could train them.” However, he insisted that for decades there has been a good structure, “except in the academy, but, despite that, continuity has been guaranteed.”
Cuba not only suffers from the bleeding of baseball players, but also from results. His closest victory dates back more than six years, it was in 2016 in the U-15 World Cup
The statistics are cold, Cuba not only suffers from the bleeding of baseball players, but also from results. His closest triumph dates back more than six years, it was in 2016 with the victory of 9 races by 4 to its similar from Japan in the U-15 World Cup. From that team Loidel Chapellí, Yandy Yánez, Malcom Núñez, Franny Cobos, Marcos Betancourt, Liván Chaviano, Hansel Otamendi, found their future in migration, some of them in Major League teams.
The most recent failure of a team from the Island in an event abroad was forged in the last Caribbean Series, where after five consecutive defeats it was eliminated. The performance of the representative was described as “shameful” by specialists as the journalist of Full Swing Daniel de Malas.
“One always has to take care of history,” journalist Francys Romero wrote on his social networks. He recalled that the “Cuban teams in the Caribbean Series were full of stars between 1950 and 1960.”
This failure was added to those of the U-15 World Cup in Venezuela where it obtained a third place, the U-23 World Cup Mexico with a second place, the Little Leagues of the Dominican Republic that reached the second rung, in the XXX Semana Beisbolera de Haarlem in The Netherlands with fifth place, the U-15 World Cup in Mexico with the second, in the U-23 World Cup in Taiwan in tenth place, the U-18 World Cup in Mexico a seventh, in the U-10 International Championship in Mexico it was second and in the IV Bahamas Caribbean Cup he was also number two.
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