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Over the past decade and a half (since 1997 to be precise) I have tried to make at least two junkets around Cuban League ballparks during each renewed National Series season ; preferably one visit sometime around mid-season and the other during the heat of post-season playoff action. The past couple of winters the earliest trip has been tied to the coattails of Kit Krieger’s annual “Cubaball” tour (which itself has existed since 2001). Thus I have enjoyed on several recent occasions serving as something of an unofficial guide or “historian in residence” for Krieger’s dozen-plus annual travelers (mostly Canadian and American ball fans) who have been making their own annual visits to Cuban ballparks for most of the last dozen years. This past month I again tagged along with Krieger’s tour group for ten days and then extended my own visit an additional week – just long enough to squeezing in visits with a half-dozen Havana friends and also to witness the final exciting showdown series between this year’s surprising dark horse ball clubs (Matanzas and Havana Metropolitanos) that capped January’s league action.

Peter with Conrado Marrero in Havana.

One regular “Cubaball” highlight is the group’s annual visit with legendary centenarian Conrado Marrero, a mid-20th century island amateur league pitching hero whose late-career five-season “cup-of-coffee” with the American League Washington Senators is far better known to stateside fans. Marrero (only two months shy of birthday number 101 and now blind and restricted to a third-floor Havana apartment he shares with grandson Rogelio and a half-dozen other immediate family members) remains as lucid as ever and revels each winter in sharing his eighty years of vivid ballpark memories with his North American fandom. Krieger – a Vancouver native – has been aiding the Marrero family for years and has recently led a campaign to pry much-needed funds from MLB and the Major League Players’ Association (compensation for the original pension funds never received by MLB’s now oldest surviving alumnus).* Each winter Krieger brings his enthusiastic “Cubaballistas” to Marrero’s residence for a spirited hour-plus question and answer session during which the amazingly spry old-timer never fails to impress with his vivid recall of obscure details culled from games played on big league diamonds six or more decades in the past.

A highlight of these sessions is always a reading of dozens of letters and cards Krieger regularly collects from Marrero’s few surviving fifties-eras big league opponents wishing to pass on their own heart-felt prayers for continued longevity. Thus it never fails that when Krieger mentions such well-wishers and former rivals as Eddie Robinson or J.W. Porter or Irv Noren the still-lucid if chair-bound Marrero always launches immediately into accounts of on-field action involving the particular old-timer in question. A special feature of this year’s visit turned out to be the additional presence of Cuban League veteran Enríque Díaz – currently setting his own modern-day standards for “remarkable longevity” with his own twenty-sixth National Series campaign. Diaz tagged along to see Marrero whom he claims has been an inspiration for his own efforts to extend a ball-playing career well beyond its expected limits. A moment of unplanned levity occurred when Marrero (perhaps forgetting Enrique’s presence – but then again perhaps not) launched into a tirade expressing his personal notions that the worst baseball he had ever “witnessed” was actually that now being played in present-day Cuban League ballparks. “They simply don’t learn fundamentals of the game anymore, and all this bunting is killing the game” crowed an agitated Marrero. In mock horror, Enríquecito hung his head and retreated to a far corner while all others enjoyed a hearty laugh at the present-day star’s expense.

Another tour high point was a visit to the shrine of Cooperstown honoree Martin Dihigo located in the Cienfuegos suburb of Cruces, site of the Hall of Famer’s family tomb as well as home to a quaint one-room municipal museum devoted to the local ball-playing legend. A visit to this shrine and to Dihigo’s 69-year-old son (Martin Dihigo, Jr.) is another regular stop on the annual Krieger tour group itinerary. The museum itself seems an inappropriately primitive shrine to a national ball-playing legend; it consists of no more than a 20-foot square first floor salon cramped with photos, paintings and plaques commemorating Dihigo’s four-decade career as Negro league and Latin league player, manager and umpire. A small glass display case also houses one of the icon’s crumpled gloves and a tattered if priceless uniform jersey. At the well-tended Dihigo grave site situated several blocks from the town center Krieger presented a ball signed by the entire tour group to Martin Jr. (who himself played briefly in the Cincinnati Reds minor league system in the late fifties and was a rookie league teammate of both Pete Rose and fellow-Cuban Tony Pérez). Placing such a signed ball on the Dihigo tombstone has become yet another of the annual Cubaball tour traditions.

Peter with Martin Dihigo Jr. in Cruces.

And then it was on to the planned week-long marathon of daily ballgame watching which included stops in Cienfuegos, Pinar del Río, Bauta (home of the newly minted Artemisa club), Matanzas and Havana’s Changa Mederos Stadium (home of the Havana Metros team). Games included such showcase matchups as a clash between pennant contenders Villa Clara and Cienfuegos, a showdown between Occidental League frontrunners Matanzas and Havana Industriales, a visit to the Changa ballpark by perennial powerhouse Santiago de Cuba, and a look at both first-year ball clubs – Artemisa and Mayabeque.

A number of rather surprising twists have already enlivened the current season and the list of eye-openers is undoubtedly topped by the sudden emergence of Matanzas as a legitimate pennant contender – and also as one of the most exciting and talented squads now found anywhere around the circuit. Much of the credit for a Matanzas revival has been heaped upon manager Victor Mesa, who has now brought his colorful and often controversial managerial style back to the league scene after a several-year absence. Mesa is undeniably skilled at motivating young players and his flamboyant style does indeed add to any stadium spectacle. But it must also be remembered that with prospects like third baseman Yurisbel Gracial, center fielder Ariel Sánchez, all-star pitcher Jorge Alberto Martínez and catcher Lázaro Herrera already gracing a youth-stacked lineup, Matanzas already seemed poised for a huge leap in performance at the close of the previous season.

All speculation about causes for revival put aside, however, the Crocodiles have overnight become something of the league’s new darlings. An early rush to the top of the Occidental League standings would inevitably hit several bumps in the road in recent weeks (especially the three straight losses to Metros which I witnessed at the end of my tour); but Mesa’s club still stood deadlocked with Industriales at the top of the pennant chase by the mid-season break. One perk for this startling upgrade in performance came in late January with the announcement that Matanzas had been selected as host for this year’s mid-February All-Star Game. No matter how the remainder of the current campaign plays out, things are definitely looking rosy once again in the baseball-proud town that boasts a strong claim to the island pastime’s mythical origins back in the 1860s.

If there was a single on-field highlight to the January tour it would have to be the visit to Victoria de Girón Stadium for a thrill-packed, national televised series lid-lifter between the Occidental League’s two leading contenders. Matanzas was nursing a slim half-game lead over the Blue Lions and enthusiasm was at such fevered pitch among the long-suffering Matanzas faithful that a standing-room-only throng had already crammed into the recently refurbished and repainted ballpark nearly two hours before the scheduled opening pitch. One indelible memory for Kit Krieger’s Cubaball tour group undoubtedly came when I was able to arrange an on-field group photo with the entire Matanzas club only minutes before game time. (The photo-op came about at the whim of volatile Victor Mesa after my brief clubhouse visit with the personable skipper; one can only dream, of course, of any such opportunity presenting itself to fans at one of today’s security-draped big league ballparks). But an even larger thrill perhaps was the opportunity to experience a rare “tie-break rule” extra-inning finish, with Industiales edging the home club 7-5 in the tenth frame thanks to the “free-runners on base” scenario now used in both international tournament play and the regular-season Cuban League. (The rule places base runners on first and second at the start of each extra frame and allows a manager to begin the inning at any desired spot in his batting order.) Most of Krieger’s group had of course never witnessed a game where the international extra-inning rule came into play and thus the giddy contingent left the event with a novel ballpark experience now tucked away in their personal baseball viewing histories.

Matanzas team photo with Cubaball tour group.

The resilience of Havana’s Metropolitanos squad certainly doesn’t lag very far behind that of Matanzas when it comes to current league headline events. If Matanzas remains the only league club without a single post-season appearance across the league’s quarter-century of playoff action, Metros for its own part has been an unchallenged league doormat for most of the past dozen or so campaigns. Two years back this lackluster club dropped a near-record 68 games and managed to finish 24.5 games off the pace of division-leading Pinar del Río – a team that itself finished only three games above the break-even level. And then add in the facts that Metros boasts the league’s smallest fan base, plays in the circuit’s most ramshackle ballpark, and has in large part functioned mainly as a pseudo “farm club” for town-rival Industriales (with the better young Metros players regularly shifted over to the Industriales roster as soon as they showed any solid talent). The poor Metros track record and constant and controversial roster raiding caused most fans and commentators to welcome an original plan for dropping Metros from the league this past fall to make room for addition of a new ball club after the splitting of Habana Province.

But once the new season got rolling in December a strange reaction seems to have set in. Not only is Metros now playing respectable baseball, but the fans are flocking to usually vacant Changa Mederos in such numbers that several recent series with Matanzas and Guantanamo have been shifted to Latin American Stadium to accommodate the increased fandom. In past years I have attended numerous games in the dilapidated Changa ballpark where the “crowds” barely topped 200 hundred and where one could actually hear conversations in the two dugouts due to the pervasive grandstand silence. But this time around, during my first week in Havana, both a single contest with Las Tunas (admittedly not one of the league’s bigger attractions) and a set of games with Santiago brought standing-room-only throngs of 3,000-plus. There were even make-shift salsa groups in the stands supporting the Metros club – a previously unknown phenomenon. Perhaps it is the mere fact that Metros is fighting for a playoff spot for the first time in a dozen years that accounts for the difference. Perhaps faced with the loss of a backup club in the city, Havana fans have developed a surprisingly novel affection for the capital’s perennial underdog. Whatever the reason, the large crowds in Changa were easily the biggest and most welcomed surprise of this winter’s Havana sojourn.

My handful of January visits to Changa and the opportunity for several pregame on-field visits with Metros pitching mentor Felipe Díaz (a longtime Havana friend) also provided some special insights into just how remarkable the Metros resurgence actually is. Felipe was quick to point out some horrendous bullpen conditions in Changa, where the single flat pitching rubber is now a rotting wooden slab that has broken loose from its clay support and moves under the pitcher’s foot with each attempted delivery. The league’s limited supply of fresh balls and bats are unevenly distributed in Havana and the bulk is sent to Latin American Stadium and thus to the Industriales club. Bullpen balls and batting practice balls used by Metros are scuffed, soiled and discolored. (During the game I witnessed in Changa between Las Tunas and Metros the Metros bench complained loudly to the home plate umpire twice during the middle innings when discolored batting practice balls were put in play while the home club was at bat.) Not only does Metros receive the leftovers among the city’s athletic talent, but the club also struggles on an uneven footing when it comes to facilities and equipment. And yet at mid-season the revitalized Metros squad now stands only a half-game out of a fourth-place playoff slot and only trails more advantaged and popular Industriales by a half-dozen games in the season’s won-lost column.

Rare overflow crowd in Changa Mederos Stadium.

Another little-anticipated saga gracing the current season involves 26-season veteran Enríque Díaz and his ongoing chase after Antonio Pacheco’s career base hits record (2356). Since Enríque has never been a national team fixture, his amazing longevity records seem to have been largely lost on the Cuban press as well as on the wide majority of Cuban fans. The 43-year-old former Industriales infielder and current Metros designated hitter already stands at the top of four different prestigious career offensive categories (plate appearances, runs scored, triples, and stolen bases) and is now on the doorstep of adding a fifth and even more-hefty claim to number one status. And yet the Cuban baseball press has made almost no mention of the later stages of the base-hit-record quest. My current tour included four Metros games at Changa Mederos ballpark plus a three-game Metros-Matanzas tour-final weekend set played in Estadio Latinoamericano. Díaz remained mired in a slump across most of my two-week stay but his ninth-inning infield single in the final contest of the series-sweep over Matanzas did bring him to within 20 safeties of the cherished record. As of the current writing, the gap has now been narrowed to a six-hit differential. (I will be publishing a detailed story covering the new base hits record on this website sometime during the coming week.)

The recent division of Habana Province into Mayabeque and Artemisa has obviously provided one of the biggest downsides of the new season. The imbalanced schedule required by a league possessing 17 clubs (one more in the Occidental League than in the Oriente division) is problem enough – despite the single upside of more open dates and thus more resulting rest days during the league’s brutal travel schedule. But more importantly, one of the most colorful and potent teams of recent campaigns has now been decimated into two of the circuit’s lamest tail-enders. Artemisa walked off with the former Cowboys squad manager (Esteban Lombillo) and the bulk of the league’s top mound corps – national team standbys Yadier Pedroso, Miguel Alfredo González (now suspended after an attempted “defection”), Yulieski González, Miguel Lahera, Jonder Martínez, and ace reliever José Angel García. But the new-formed Artemisa Cazadores (Hunters) inherited almost nothing in the way of potent or even experienced offense. At the same time the Mayabeque Hurricanes (already in the Occidental League basement at mid-season) now boast few reliable starting hurlers or strong bullpen arms despite retaining most of the talented Habana Province position players (including catcher Danger Guerrero, first sacker Ernesto Molinet, and crack outfielder Denis Laza). The result has been two “half-squads” destined to do battle with each other and an equally lame Isla club for dubious distinction of escaping the league cellar.

I witnessed both sad sack clubs during the recent tour and the shortcomings were quite obvious after just one visit. A Sunday afternoon visit to Pinar witnessed Mayabeque struggling to scratch out five hits against Pinar starter Vladimir Baños during a 6-1 drubbing at the hands of the defending league champions. Three days later in Bauta, Artemisa looked more anemic still while being crushed 19-1 on their bandbox home field by Occidental League champion Ciego de Avila. Miguel Lahera (Cuba’s top starter in the recent Panama World Cup last October) never escaped the second inning of a laughable contest. It appears that without offensive support the contingent of former Habana Province aces is both unmotivated and largely demoralized. Jonder Martínez currently owns an embarrassing career-worst mark of but one win in ten decisions (plus a soaring 6.47 ERA); Yulieski González boasts numbers only a shade better (3-7, 5.32); Lahera (despite the disastrous outing versus Ciego) at least claims a winning ledger (7-6, 3.80) yet has hardly been as dominant as in the past. Only Pedroso (with a league best 103 Ks) and José Angel García (among the league pacesetters with 11 saves, and also an All-Star Game selection) seem even a shadow of their former selves.

Primitive air conditioning system in Metros team dugout.

Despite the surges by surprising Matanzas and normal frontrunner Industriales out west, in the long run Santiago may prove to be this season’s biggest league revival story. Pitching has been a large negative for the Wasps in recent seasons, and the loss of veteran ace Norge Vera has not helped; age has also been a downside in Santiago in recent campaigns, with lineup mainstay Rolando Meriño now 40, fleet slugging center fielder Reutilio Hurtado reaching 36, and veteran hurlers Dany Betancourt (30), Osmel Cintra (33), Yaumier Sánchez (33) and Osmani Tamayo (30) all reaching the latter stages of their careers. But under rookie manager Alcides Sánchez (a replacement for Antonio Pacheco) team spirit has improved drastically and the Wasps at mid-season are still hanging on near the top of the Oriental League in a tight pennant race battle Villa Clara and mildly surprising Las Tunas. Betancourt has reemerged as a staff ace (currently 6-3, 3.00) and youngster Carlos Portuondo (5-2 record despite a soaring 5.55 ERA) has been one of the season’s biggest reclamation projects. Strong offense has neutralized the shortfall in pitching, with the main contributors being Héctor Olivera (.345 average with 16 homers), a rejuvenated Alexei Bell (9 homers and a .461 OBP), and the ageless combo of Hurtado (also 9 homers) and Meriño (8 round-trippers and 33 RBI). The return of outfielder Edilse Silva (12 long balls) from Holguín has further upgraded an already potent attack. At midseason it is beginning to appear that Santiago may again display the needed combination of slugging and veteran experience to mount a major post-season challenge against odds-on favorite Villa Clara.

In retrospect, this winter’s all-too-brief two-week barnstorming visit to baseball’s most colorful hotbed underscored the health of a league that continues to thrive and prosper despite a sagging Cuban economy. Also despite the debilitating effects brought on by a steady loss of young talent that has elected to flee the country for usually futile dreams big-dollar contracts in professional North American baseball. If overall league talent has sagged somewhat of late due to distracting and noisome player “defections” it is equally true that fan enthusiasms are once more soaring. The strong revival of fan-favorite Industriales (after a rare off-season a year ago) and the sudden and surprising surge of perennially weak Metropolitanos goes a long way to accounting for the swelling crowds in the capital city. The return of night baseball for the first time in three years at Havana’s Latin American Stadium has also been a huge plus in stimulating renewed fan interest. Out in the provinces, Matanzas is making a first-ever serious run at post-season contention with always-colorful Victor Mesa now performing (in more ways than one) at the helm; Santiago has mirrored Industriales with its strong rebound after several surprisingly quiet campaigns. And a crowd of young sluggers headed by Alfredo Despaigne (currently on pace to once again abolish the existing home run standard), José Dariel Abreu and Héctor Olivera continue a steady assault on the league’s record books. All combine to promise one of the most gripping late-season pennant chases in a number of island decades.

*The full story of Conrado Marrero’s ball-playing career is available in my posted biography found on-line at the SABR (Society for American Baseball Research) Biography Project website. Marrero’s current struggles as a century-old invalid in Havana have also been documented in my more recent story published last summer in the New York Times (August 14, 2011). SABR’s Biography Project website also carries my portrait of Cooperstown Hall of Famer Martin Dihigo.





Peter C. Bjarkman is author of A History of Cuban Baseball, 1864-2006 (McFarland, 2007) and is widely recognized as a leading authority on Cuban baseball, both past and present. He has reported on Cuban League action and the Cuban national team for www.BaseballdeCuba.com during the past five years and is currently completing a book on the history of the post-revolution Cuban national team.