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 Orioles unsure what awaits in Cuba
Posted: Thursday March 25, 1999 07:59 PM
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -- Baltimore Orioles players aren't sure what to expect, of the Cuban team or the country, when they step off their chartered airplane in Havana Saturday. "I live in Florida and I've heard a lot of stuff from a lot of people," reliever Mike Timlin said. "I've heard it's extremely beautiful, it's extremely poor and people are killed on a daily basis. "I've heard it used to be the best spot in the world to go, a paradise. But now you hear they drive 1950s cars and they get paid in pesos." After a whirlwind sightseeing tour, the Orioles will face the Cubans Sunday. The Cuban team is an enigma, given that all the players are amateurs who receive no exposure in the United States except during the Olympics. Ask any Orioles player to name two players on the Cuban team, and you get a perplexed expression or a shrug of the shoulders. But because Cuba has produced several talented major leaguers, the Orioles expect stiff competition. "They're a very good amateur team and probably have some guys who could play in the big leagues," Orioles left fielder B.J. Surhoff said. "I haven't seen them play in a while, but there's no reason to think they wouldn't have some very good players." The trip is the result of three years of work by team owner Peter Angelos. It wasn't finalized until earlier this month, after around-the-clock negotiations with representatives of the State Department and the Cuban Institute of Sports as well as executives from Major League Baseball and the players union. That session followed a trip to Cuba in January by Angelos, who led a 14-member negotiating team to Havana after receiving State Department clearance. Major league baseball teams used to visit Cuba regularly, but the last were the Cincinnati Reds and Los Angeles Dodgers, who played exhibition games there in March 1959, about 2 1/2 months after Fidel Castro's revolution ousted dictator Fulgencio Batista on New Year's Day. "I curious to see what it looks like and see how they handle it," Orioles catcher Lenny Webster said. Despite protests from anti-Castro groups in Florida during Orioles exhibition games, Angelos contends that Sunday's game -- and the return matchup in Baltimore May 3 -- will benefit both Cuba and the United States. "I'm pleased that we've been successful and that through the medium of baseball -- the national sport of both countries -- we will be able to establish ties of friendship and cooperation with the Cuban people," Angelos said. "It's been a long journey, but if the purpose of the two games is achieved, it will have been worth the effort." Some of the Orioles are excited about seeing the country and playing the game. Others, however, are a bit less enthusiastic. Starting pitcher Juan Guzman will skip the trip, contending he wouldn't be pitching anyway. Cal Ripken was planning to go, but returned home after the death of his father. First baseman Will Clark is eager to see the country and its baseball team but is more focused on getting ready for his first season in Baltimore. "In 1984 when I was on the Olympic team, we didn't get a chance to play them because they boycotted the Olympic games," he said. "So this will be on the interesting side." Yet he's looking at the excursion as a business trip. "I've got six months of a baseball season to prepare for," Clark said. "That's what I'm going there for and that's the only reason. It's just a one-day road trip, going to play a team I didn't get to play 15 years ago."
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