A selection of baseball Russia will travel to Cuba on April 3 to play several matches against the island’s national and youth teams, according to authorities of that sport in the Eurasian nation.
The President of the Federation of Baseball of Russia, Dimitri Kiseliov, confirmed that the tour will last until April 17, a period in which they will hold seven matches, with dates and times to be determined by the Cuban side, according to a report from the Prensa Latina (PL) agency.
Add the note that this Tuesday the call for the Russian team will be approved. “The final preparations for the flight to Cuba are already underway,” the manager said.
During the stay of the Russian players in Cuba, the signing of a cooperation agreement between the federations of both nations is expected, Kiseliov added.
At the end of last November, the European Executive Committee of the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) suspended Russia from European competitions in the 2023 season, recalls PL.
This decision, in line with the sanctions adopted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, also implies a ban on holding European or international tournaments on Russian soil.
The measure affects Russian athletes, coaches, professionals and officials of all levels and age groups, linked to baseball.
Baseball was officially introduced to Russia in 1987, when the Soviet Union was still in existence. So the State Sports Committee decided to promote the game, which had become an Olympic medal sport, according to a note published on the WBSC website.
However, the story covers the career of Victor Starffin (1916-1957), a Soviet player who made his fortune in the Japanese Professional Baseball League (NPB, for its acronym in English). The right-hander, nicknamed “The Blue-Eyed Japanese,” was the first 300-game winner in Japanese professional baseball and holds his record for career shutouts with 83.
The first unofficial international match was played on August 15, 1987 in kyiv (present-day Ukraine) and Nicaragua defeated the USSR with a score of 22-0.
