Baseball: Cuban youngsters pitch for a dream

Children watch a match during a training session at their baseball school in Havana. Baseball in Cuba begins at age 6 and it is a mandatory part of the curriculum. Photo / AP

HAVANA: The pitch whistles in with such fury that the catcher screams and pulls off his glove, frantically shaking a left hand that's turning purple.

He has no catcher's mask or mitt, only an infielder's glove. Its lack of padding is a problem when he's paired with 14-year-old left-hander Claudio Jerez.

The bony team co-captain is beginning another windup when an assistant coach claps his hands. Suddenly, Jerez is jogging out behind third base to catch fly balls.

"Everyone plays all positions until about age 15," says Adelio Garcia, manager for this team of top 13- and 14-year-olds from the western Havana district of Playa. "They like kids with many skills."

"They" are Government scouts who seek out top talent in Cubans as young as 7, sending gifted athletes in all sports to special district schools. Those who excel are tapped for boarding academies where they get coaching, practice and individualised diet and exercise regimens.

Cuba's powerful sports machine weeds out all but the best talent as youngsters age, helping this tiny country crank out droves of world-class athletes. But it begins in places like this: A rocky field where children who have yet to hit puberty practise on a leisurely Friday afternoon.

"We look for talent from infancy, always thinking about sending [children] to high-performance schools," Garcia said. "There is always talent. Cubans have baseball in their blood."

Physical education begins at age 6 and baseball is a mandatory part of the curriculum, said Tony Castillo, head of scholastic development for the Cuban Baseball Federation. Tryouts at 7 or 8 can win children a spot on a district team, like Playa's, and the chance to attend non-sleep-away schools for baseball players.

It is their first step to possible stardom - but not riches. Most of the 21 players on the diamond don't have cleats or uniforms. Many have caps with Cuban League logos, but Yankees, Dodgers, Cubs, Cardinals and Giants hats sent by relatives in the US are also being worn.

Garcia said some years, Cuban Sports Ministry officials drop off a box or two of new baseballs. But no equipment has come this season.

That means players must have their own gloves, bats and balls. Buying them in the Government-run stores that cater to tourists can set parents back half a year's salary on an island where average state wages are about $20 a month.

Students at baseball schools, including Garcia's charges, leave class at midday and spend all afternoon practising during the two months the team is vying for the city championship.

"After that, we concentrate on attendance in school," said Garcia, a 24-year veteran of youth coaching who breaks the team into small groups to work on hitting and fielding.

Many Cuban coaches pressure young batters, demanding after a strikeout to know what went wrong. But Garcia only walks quietly from group to group, shaking hands with players.

He and other coaches across Cuba nominate their best talent, and voluntary sports committees choose five or six players from all districts to compete for each of the 23 spots on Havana's youth team, and similar regional all-star squads nationwide.

National Sports Institute officials then watch all-star youth teams, selecting top players for further promotion through the athletic ranks.

Castillo said that in 2008, there were 7230 Cubans 13 and 14 playing for district baseball schools, but just 377 youngsters of the same age were invited to Sports Initiation Schools, the next step up the talent ladder.

About that number of 18-year-olds were accepted in Superior Schools for Athletic Perfectionism, development leagues for older talent.

In other sports, those schools are where athletes compete for spots on Cuba's national teams.

In baseball, however, there is a final round of screening at the Provisional Academy. The sports apparatus "explains the level of baseball in our country. It's no coincidence, it's a product of politics and mass organisation", Castillo said.

Cuba took silver at the Beijing Olympics and finished second in the 2006 World Baseball Classic. Still, legendary slugger Omar Linares recently suggested baseball here has "dropped a notch".

"From the beginning, a good job is not being done and players accumulate deficiencies," the retired third baseman said.

Garcia agreed with Linares to a point.

"At the fundamentals level there are many problems," he said. "But he didn't mention the lack of resources."

Most children never make it to the top, but Alexander Malleta, first baseman for Cuba's WBC squad, hails from Playa.

Those who do not reach the national team can play in the Cuban League. Eight players from Playa are on Industriales, Cuba's equivalent of the New York Yankees, or Metropolitanos, Havana's second-tier team.

Wearing Industriales pinstripes is a dream for Jerez. He said he had seen US games on illegal satellite television and his favourite player was Seattle hit-machine Ichiro Suzuki.

"The best talent in the world is concentrated there," Jerez said of the American big leagues.

Orlando Amador, another Playa co-captain, says his favourite American star is Derek Jeter, though he has seen him only in PlayStation games.

"He is the best," Amador said of Jeter. The 14-year-old prefers playing shortstop, just like his Yankees idol.

Before Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, Cuban stars played on US teams. Today, players wanting to play in America have to defect, and those who do are erased from Cuban record books and never mentioned on state radio or television.

All Cuban players are considered amateurs, toiling for tiny state salaries and required to play for the city or province where they were born.

They get perks, including special housing, cars and washing machines. Instead of being built on profits, however, Cuba's league is driven by politics - with players who will praise the communist system sometimes promoted over malcontents, regardless of talent.

The Cuban system's dark side is that it exploits players by limiting their personal freedoms and professional choices, said Katie Baird, an economics professor at the University of Washington at Tacoma, who has written about baseball on the island.

She said that many "Americans look at professional athletes in the US as being jaded, spoiled".

"Seeing or hearing about baseball players in Cuba, who are paid nothing and are almost as talented as our players, it is easy to romanticise," Baird said.

"In fact ... players are the same, probably in motive, love for the game. They are just in very different institutional environments."

Garcia countered that Cuba's system creates players with more heart, saying American stars "take care of themselves too much".

"If there's a ball hit to them, maybe they don't dive for it because there could be an injury," he said. "They don't take chances to win. They don't have the passion we do."

- AP