Local baseball players pleasantly surprised by warm welcome in Castro country

By Vincent Liu, Town Crier Correspondent

If there is one thing Cubans seem to love more than baseball, that would be — surprise — Americans. That is the revelation brought home by a group of South Bay high school baseball players and parents, mostly from St. Francis High School, after a recent trip to a country generally off limits to Americans.

In late July, St. Francis baseball coach Chris Bradford, along with nine of his players and two guest players from Bellarmine College Prep and Archbishop Mitty High School, departed for Havana to play baseball. Bradford embarked on the trip with his share of apprehension.

“My expectations were that Cuba would be a dreary, dirty, totalitarian state where our every move would be under surveillance, a place where the food would be scarce, where the infrastructure would make creature comforts nonexistent, and a place where I would be very glad to be back from,” Bradford said.

It didn’t help that the team arrived at its hotel in the wee hours, and shadowy figures were lurking in the streets. The players would later learn it is a local habit to sit in open air during the summer.

“It was a little scary for awhile,” confessed Jared Lansford, a junior from St. Francis.

Any trepidation the contingent might have quickly melted away.

Over the next seven days, Bradford and his players gleefully discovered they were free to roam with no restrictions, never once getting stopped or harassed.

“We felt open and welcomed,” Bradford said. “There was no feeling of Big Brother watching us.”

As a self-sponsored team wearing the emblem of California on their jerseys, the Americans played against the Cuban junior national team (twice) and two city youth teams. In between games, they spent plenty of time playing the role of tourists.

To Lansford and his teammates - Kevin Cunningham, Brady Fuerst and Matt Long among them - it was the warmth and friendliness of the people they met on the streets that hit a home run with them, over and over. One chance encounter in the countryside turned out to be a grand slam.

Traveling from Havana to play a game at Cienfuegos, the American players saw a pickup game between two groups of adults and decided to stop and watch. Pretty soon they were invited to play a friendly match against the locals. Word spread quickly, and a large crowd lined the sandlot to watch a game played in Spartan conditions.

The field was like a cow pasture, the game ball felt like a mushy grapefruit, the home team catcher wore no shinguard, and some of his teammates wore sandals. A horse was grazing away behind first base, undisturbed by the activities nearby. The locals designated it their first base coach.

To Myron Nessan, director of finance at St. Francis who made the trip, it was a scene right out of the movie “Field of Dreams.”

“We were in the middle of nowhere,” he said. “People just started showing up, and I don’t know where they came from. It was like, ‘play it and they will come.’ That was our field of dreams.”

It was an impromptu pickup game that transcended baseball, politics and ideologies. At those precious moments, it was as if time had stood still and the world was at peace.

One parent was moved to tears.

“How good is this? You couldn’t buy this,” he said.

It turned out to be the highlight of the entire trip and an experience the players would not soon forget.

“They tried to talk to us in half-English and half-Spanish with all kinds of hand gestures,” Cunningham recalled.

“These country folks were totally different and friendly,” Long said.

“Yeah, and some of them invited us to their homes,” Fuerst chimed in.

“Just the nicest people,” Lansford added.

As a gesture of good will if not appreciation, Bradford doled out spare T-shirts and baseball hats after the contest.

“Well, they cleaned me out,” he said.

It was a small bounty for a lifetime of memories.

As the Americans pulled away in their air-conditioned tour bus, the locals were seen piling on a crudely built open-air wooden cart hitched to a tractor. That was their team bus.

The experience also underscored the popularity of baseball in Cuba.

“It’s Cuba’s main passion,” said former Oakland A’s all-star Carney Lansford, who accompanied his son Jared on the trip. “One player on the Cuban national team reportedly rode a bike 17 miles each way to make the game.”

Carney, currently a hitting instructor for the St. Francis baseball team, was also impressed by the quality of play exhibited by the Cuban youth. “They are very well coached and take baseball extremely seriously,” he said.

The Cubans, Carney observed, play aggressive baseball all around.

“They are not patient at the plate, and they don’t take strikes,” he said.

“You relax on the field and they’d take an extra base on you,” Jared said.

“Or two (bases),” Long added.

The Cuban pitchers also threw quite a few sinkers due to their tendency to throw sidearm, according to Carney.

In addition to their passion for baseball, the Cubans are knowledgeable about baseball figures in our country. Carney was readily acknowledged by coaches and players from the Cuban teams. What he didn’t expect was to be recognized by a bystander on the country roadside of that memorable pickup game.

Seizing the moment, Carney quickly pulled out a Sharpie and autographed a baseball for the fan. As he proudly displayed the horsehide to one of his buddies, the fan watched in horror as his sidekick promptly whacked the ball away with a bat as if to test if it was any good.

For the record, the Americans went 1-3 on the trip and the scores quickly became a distant memory.

“I honestly could have cared less about the scores,” Bradford said.

What impressed Bradford most was the reception he and his fellow travelers received from the Cubans wherever they went.

“The people are fantastically warm and welcoming as well as curious about life in the United States,” he said. “They are intelligent and educated and have a terrific sense of humor.”

Sof’a Blanc-Christensen, who teaches Spanish at St. Francis and served as the interpreter for the American contingent, couldn’t agree more.

“These people have so little, yet they are happy, outgoing and enjoying life,” she said.

As one who escaped from another totalitarian country, Chile, Blanc-Christensen feels a special kinship with the Cubans.

“They never complain,” she said. “Every day is a celebration of life.”

While Cuba is off limits to the American general public, citizens of other countries have no such restriction. Yet, the Cubans seem genuinely fond of Americans. Nessan received a clue as to why from a villager on the street. “We love Americans because they are friendly, try to speak our language and try to get to know us.”

The Europeans, on the other hand, are often seen as tourists who simply observe the Cubans, prompting the villager to conclude, “They’re only interested in our cigars, rum and food.”

The trip has given Bradford a sounding board on this country’s foreign policy on Cuba.

“I found it difficult to understand why we are continuing to prevent American citizens from traveling freely to Cuba,” he said. “I cannot be persuaded that a continued embargo is in the best interests of anyone. I guess I should try telling that to the Cubans living in Miami.”

According to Bradford’s wife, Margaret Miller, don’t count on a policy change any time soon. The trip to Cuba took 18 months to execute - to clear all the paperwork and red tape at the U.S. State Department. Due to the war with Iraq, it would be even harder now to arrange for such a trip, according to Miller, who is also the dean of students at St. Francis.

Taking students on educational and cultural journeys to foreign soil has been an ongoing venture for Miller and her husband. In all, they have sponsored 13 such voyages to places all over the world. About six years ago, Bradford and his coaching counterparts at Bellarmine and Mitty took a group of players from the three schools to play baseball in Europe. It laid the foundation for the idea to go to Cuba.

Bradford and his wife called it the trip of a lifetime. Many of those who went with them agreed.

In a recent post-trip celebration, all members of the traveling party got together to share pictures, experiences and Cuban dishes. Some parents still marveled at how their sons continued to mention the trip. To some of the players, it was also a lesson about life and freedom.

One parent recalled seeing his 17-year-old son sitting next to a Cuban youth of the same age. The latter was already a father, with two young infants by his side. While one has his whole life in front of him — enjoying opportunities and freedom often taken for granted — the other was probably pondering the consequences of early procreation in a materially deprived police state.

Ryan Lee, another St. Francis baseball player who made the trip, told of an encounter with a man he met on the street. That Cuban had failed six attempts to escape to the United States and was jailed.

“I will try again,” he told Lee.

Lee also met two parents who pointed out their children to him.

“One day they will be in America,” one of them said.