The roadmaps for the World Baseball Classic are already on the table, whose fifth version in 2023 will be lived with 20 contenders for the crown for the first time in the history of the tournament. Cuba, which has gone from being a finalist in the premiere edition 16 years ago to becoming a mere supporting actor in the last contest of 2017, will compete in Taichung together with Chinese Taipei, Italy, Holland and a fifth country still to be defined in the two global qualifiers.
Judging by the difficulty of the other sections, the Island has received a divine gift in its aspirations to advance to the second round and remain among the best eight teams on the planet. Imagine what the fate of the Antilleans would be in the same group with the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Venezuela, the three-headed monster that surpassed itself in 2006. Would we survive? It could be, because stories repeat themselves, but that now seems like a too distant memory.
The reality of Cuban baseball has changed so much in this time, that it also sounds like a chimera to come out on top in a hypothetical adventure against Japan and South Korea, or another against the United States, Canada and Mexico. So, without any complexes, let’s assume that the organizers of the Classic have done us a great favor or, at least, have given us the opportunity to compete against squads of a level not as high as that of the powers.
Taichung, Tokyo, Phoenix, and Miami are ready!
Here is the official tournament format for the #WorldBaseballClassic 2023. ⚾️ pic.twitter.com/co0IxZZad4
— World Baseball Classic (@WBCBaseball) July 7, 2022
However, this does not mean that we are facing a path of roses. With the human material that we have today in the ranks of the Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB)we would not be favorites in the weakest group of the Clásico.
The Netherlands, executioner of recent years, has a generation of stars in MLB that could make us blush, while Taipei, as host of the group, aims to be a stone in the shoe with that style so peculiar to Asian baseball. More affordable seems to be Italy, although they have maintained their progression and will surely be led by mentor Mike Piazza, a true Cooperstown immortal with many connections in US baseball, which could pave the way for some northern players with transalpine roots are invited to the event.
That said, Cuba cannot sleep if it wants to get out of Taichung alive. A priori, the objective is earthly, but fulfilling it will largely depend on our capacity for action, on our willingness to take unprecedented steps to tear down the walls erected over decades of slogans, offenses, arrogance, nonsense and extremism from both shores.
Cuba today has extraordinary potential in the most diverse professional circuits in the world, some linked to the national sports movement and others not. However, all these players share a link: none is excludable to join a national team for the Classic.
The World Baseball Classic is BACK!
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March, 2023#WorldBaseballClassic pic.twitter.com/3lE3RLNBns— World Baseball Classic (@WBCBaseball) July 7, 2022
No matter how many times the idea has been sold that FCB cannot summon its professional players installed in the most dissimilar corners of the planet, that is totally false. Based on the evidence on the table, baseball officials on the island have all the power to call Frederich Cepeda, José Abreu, Henry Urrutia, Dayán Viciedo or José Miguel Fernández to the ranks of the national squad, because there are no them some distinction beyond the country where they develop their respective careers today.
As we said, the evidence is not hidden, on the contrary, we have had it right under our noses for years. Let’s first go back in the time machine to 2017, when Rob Manfred, current MLB commissioner, said to Prensa Latina that “for (the Classic of) 2021 the (Cuban) Federation will have the possibility of analyzing the situation of summoning or not the players born on the Island who play in the Major Leagues.”
Unfortunately, the pandemic prevented the celebration of the Clásico in 2021, but in all this time Manfred has not come out in public to change his position. The absurd cancellation of the pact that the FCB and MLB signed in December 2018 with the aim of normalizing the flow of players from the Island to the United States does not affect this point either.
Although the aforementioned Agreement opened up a wide range of opportunities for players residing in Cuba, its non-existence or validity in no way conditions the call for players who play in Major League organizations or who play in other professional circuits on a personal basis.
Perhaps the most eloquent proof of this is the discourse of the Antillean authorities themselves. In April of this year, for example, they assured that they had the intention and were open to dialogue and incorporating MLB players to the Classic team, as long as said men “want and love Cuban baseball.”
In principle, this does not seem to be a very difficult requirement to meet, especially if we do not talk about bureaucratic conditions such as the uncomfortable (and usually lengthy) repatriation process. But then here comes the problem: this is only about an “intention”, and from the intention to the action it is a very long way, too long.
Without going too far, Cuba had the intention to summon professional players based in Mexico for the Americas Pre-Olympic in June 2021. Several players were talked to, who even gave the go-ahead while waiting for the negotiation with their respective clubs for an eventual release, but in the end nothing materialized.
So intentions alone are not enough. The Cuban authorities need to take a step forward, be more convincing and determined to fulfill a sacred duty: to present the best team that can be assembled on behalf of millions of fans scattered throughout the world.
Cuba is open to summoning Major League players to its national team
The idea of establishing communication with the broad and diverse baseball diaspora cannot be as delusional as it has never been before. Cuba has the absolute support of the World Baseball Softball Confederation in the figure of its president, the Italian, Ricardo Fraccari, who has shown signs of being very interested in somehow rescuing the island’s prestige in the international arena.
Now if Fraccari defended to the FCB as the only entity empowered to present a team in the World Classic in the face of the attempt by the Association of Professional Cuban Baseball Players (ACPBP) to summon an independent squad, should also intercede as a bridge so that the right to be summoned is respected of players from the Island who reside in the United States, Mexico, Japan, South Korea or any other country.
In this sense, the highly criticized ACPBP has managed to bring together many of those players and demand their rights, something unprecedented and necessary. Due to their influence, they could also contribute to setting up a dialogue table, essential to find out the willingness of the players to join the same team under the protection of the FCB, even if it is only to compete in the World Classic.
However, for now the will of the ACPBP is to stay away from the FCB given their antagonistic positions and political ideals, which also does not contribute to achieving an eventual meeting point.
For Cuban baseball, which includes countless actors both inside and outside the Island, it is urgent to solve all these wrongs, something that will only be possible on the basis of mutual respect and commitment.
We all need to understand that in a Cuba team with players “from here and there” is that of millions of fans, many of whom would be willing to put aside their political and ideological differences in order to see them dressed in the same four-letter shirt to the best baseball players in a country that, despite its hardships, continues to yearn for its baseball.
In the current circumstances, if we do not choose the path of inclusion, we must then prepare for only one scenario: the challenge of the Clásico will end in another defeat that will sink even more into the shadows the prestige and legacy of the sport of balls and strikes in the island.
