The Slow-Pitch Ambassadors to Cuba

[Judi Lynn]

The Slow-Pitch Ambassadors to Cuba
By BRUCE WEBER
Published: November 25, 2011

HAVANA — Wearing orange jerseys — T-shirts, really — the Cuban players lined up along the first-base line at Mella Field here. We were in blue, along third. All of us, both teams, held our caps over our hearts, and the Cuban National Concert Band played two national anthems, first the United States’, then Cuba’s, followed, for some reason, by “The Pink Panther Theme.”

The two countries’ flags were unfurled side by side behind the pitcher’s mound, and everyone posed for pictures. Teófilo Stevenson, the former Olympic heavyweight champion and a member of the Cuban Olympic Committee, signed autographs. Gerardo Hernández, a deputy of the Cuban National Assembly, and John Caulfield, chief of mission of the United States Interests Section in Havana, America’s top envoy in Cuba, threw out ceremonial first pitches.

“The Cuban people love the North American people,” Hernández said to the players and a sparse crowd through an interpreter. “We welcome you with the love that you deserve.”

For his part, Caulfield congratulated the band for its rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/26/sports/us-softball-ambassadors-to-cuba.html?_r=1&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nyt%2Frss%2FSports+%28NYT+%3E+Sports%29