Baseball is Cuba

Cuba’s National Pastime: Baseball can be yours on your Cuba Holidays.

On your luxury holidays in the largest Caribbean island, you will see that the game of balls and strikes –with thousands of fans everywhere- involves even the few people who are exceptionally not interested in keeping tabs on stats and watching action on the field. If you are also a lover of the baseball game, you have chosen the right place for your summer holidays because in Cuba baseball is much more than a simply pastime, it is part of Cuban identity and history. While being on your all inclusive holidays in Cuba, you will have the opportunity of watching Cuban baseball players on the field. Besides, it will be very interesting to know the long history of this sport in Cuba and how it was involve in Cuba’s revolution wars for independence.

Only during your Cuba holidays you will know the real Cuban Baseball history.

Once you are enjoying your holidays in Cuba you will know that the history of Baseball game started since the time of Cuban aborigines. When the Spaniards came to Cuba in the 15^th century, they found that Cuban aborigines used to play a game called Batos, a game that truly resembles the Baseball game of these days. Afterwards, during the Spanish colonization, Baseball game was also played an often used for revolutionary purposes .Only as part of your Caribbean holidays in Cuba you will have the possibility of learning that it never crossed Cuban Nemesio Guillot’s mind that the day he brought baseball implements from the United States to his homeland, he was sowing the seeds of what eventually panned out to be the passion of millions of islanders in just a few years. Mr. Guillot, at the time a college student in America, acquired such a liking for the game that he decided to take it back to Cuba in 1864. The popularity of baseball caught on so rapidly in the Cuban people that the Spanish rulers banned it altogether under the premise that it was “an anti-Spanish, insurgent and pro-American practice that triggers enmity towards Spain.”
On December 27, 1874, the game of baseball began to be officially played in Cuba. The first game, pitting a local ball club against a Havana team, took place at the Palmar de Junco Stadium in Matanzas city. The visitors routed past the home team 51 to 9.
Sports writers at the time reported the three homeruns whacked by catcher Esteban Bellan, a man who had recently come back from the States where he had polished up his playing style in the then fledgling Major League Baseball camps. Mr. Bellan had lived in America from 1867 to 1874 and played for the Morrisania Union, the Union of Lasinburg and the Haymakers Club of Troy. You will have the chance while spending your luxury holidays in Cuba, of visiting this stadium which is a symbol to the baseball in Cuba and it remains well preserve for the baseball lovers like you that haven chosen the homeland of the Baseball Olympic Winners to spend the Cuba holidays of your life.
If you are a real fan of the game of bats and balls and you are also ones of lovers of statistics your holidays in Cuba will surely become very interesting when you realize that the first U.S. professional league came into being in 1871: the National League, where Mr. Bellan played until 1875. On that same year, Mr. Bellan decided to return to Cuba to spread the game of baseball in his native island, despite having signed a contract with the New York Mutuals. Cuban championships soon started to lure Americans. Time and again, they sent out different teams to play on the island nation, including several Chicago ball clubs, the Philadelphia Athletics and an All-American squad.

These summer holidays will let you know how Baseball was link to Cuban wars of independence.

While on your package holidays you will discover that the 1895 Independence War cut off the proliferation of baseball for quite some time as some on-the-field stars joined the army of Cuban freedom fighters. Ricardo Cabaleiro –one of the first Cuban ballplayers ever to hit three homers in a single game- was a captain in the army led by General Antonio Maceo. Emilio Sabourin, both a player and the head coach of the Havana ball club, was detained by Spanish authorities during the course of the Independence War. As part of your all inclusive holidays in Cuba, you will realize that Cuban baseball players were as good on the baseball field than on the war one. Jailed in Cuba and later deported to Ceuta, Mr. Sabourin met Juan Gualberto Gomez, one of Jose Marti’s aides, in prison. From that moment on, Sabourin became an active advocate for Cuba’s independence. This is what Juan Gualberto Gomez once had to say about Mr. Sabourin: “He gave me the impression that he loved three things in the same breath in his lifetime: his family, his homeland and baseball.” So, these Christmas holidays you are in Cuba not only to enjoy and see with your own eyes Cuban Dream Team play but also to know the roots of these Cuban players.
Adding more history knowledge to your holidays in Cuba, you will learn that as Cuba broke free from the Spanish colonial rule, the game of bats, balls and gloves got pumped up by the boosting participation of Negro players. Blacks had been sidelined as a result of heavy racial discrimination on the island, even though slavery had been abolished in 1886. Great ballplayers came up like daisies all across the island.
The name of Jose de la Caridad Mendez, a man who could even beat MLB teams in U.S. soil was a case in point. In 1906, Martin Dihigo (nicknamed The Immortal) made trailblazing history of his own in Cuba’s national pastime as he could play safely and elegantly in all nine positions. Mr. Dihigo performed in Mexico, Venezuela and in the U.S. Negro Leagues. He became the first Latin American ballplayer ever to be inducted into the American Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. All these and more can be learned by you on the sportiest Cuba Holidays you ever spend.

Cuba Baseball at the Olympic games in Athens: a game to remember on your Caribbean holidays.

During your Cuba Holidays you will remember that eight teams hit the ballpark in the Greek capital with their sight locked on the Olympic gold. Three teams were from Europe (Greece, the Netherlands and Italy), two from Asia (Japan and Chinese Taipei), two from the Americas (Cuba and Canada) and one from Oceania (Australia).The 2000 champion, the United States, didn’t make the grade during the 2003 pre-Olympic trials in Panama. Nevertheless, most experts agree the competition was very tough as all teams had trained hard for the Games. A sign of the times is the presence of professional ballplayers in Athens. As part of your package holidays to Cuba, a visit to the Baseball museum that is located on the Latiamerican Stadium is an opportunity you cannot miss. On this museum, there are bats, gloves, and balls of all the Cuban Baseball players that have written their name on the Cuban Baseball history. There are also books were statistics are reflected from all times, a unique possibility of your luxury holidays in Cuba. Once there you will also have the chance as part of your all inclusive holidays in Cuba to see Cuban players training on field and a Dream Team Game can be see by you as part of your all inclusive holidays in Cuba. A very equipped store of sports implements is located there, your opportunity of buying a ball or a bat with the same quality and made in the land of the Olympic Winners is only your while spending your Package holidays in Cuba. Once you are at the Latinamerican Stadium enjoying your Cuba holidays you will also have the chance of taking to the managers, coaches and players of those teams that so many golden medals have achieved not only overseas but also on Cuba fields. They can explain to you how National League works and why we do not have professional baseball in Cuba and this only can occur during your Cuba Holidays. If you area a real fan of Baseball and of Cuban players you will also have the unique possibility of having a picture with ones of this worldwide famous players such as: Antonio Pacheco, Omar Linares, Carlos Tabares, Orestes Kindelan, among others that have written their names very high as the ball they hit when it is a homerun. The Cuba’s baseball champs are recognized overseas for their high-octane performances that is why, the Cuban national team was pencilled in as everybody’s shoo-in to bring back home the Olympic gold medals in Athens 2004, just another feather in a baseball cap that has swayed between sport fun and patriotism since the dawn of the game.