The Unlikeliest of Heroes
The influx of Cuban born baseball players into the majors are saving Major League Baseball from impending doom.
Since the dawn of Baseball’s existence, it has served as an escape and a common hobby amongst both working class and affluent Americans. Joining the likes of Apple Pie and Chevrolet, Baseball has become a summertime ritual enjoyed by generations of young ball cap shaded smiles. The white ball, red seams, and blue collar nature of baseball’s rigorous one-hundred and sixty-two game season, have empowered whites and minorities with enough strength to endure World War One, The Great Depression, World War Two, The Jim Crow Era, The Cold War, The Vietnam War, and even the aftermath of the September Eleventh attacks.
On September 21st 2001 Hall of Fame Catcher Mike Piazza, with one crack of the bat, boosted the spirits of many heavy hearted Americans still grieving those lost in the September Eleventh attacks. Piazza hit a clutch go-ahead home run in the late innings that not only put the Mets ahead but also inspired the nation to move forward. One home-run proved to be the defining moment of Mike Piazza’s career, eventually elevating his status from Tri-State area hero to national demigod.
Unfortunately, inspiriting moments in Major League Baseball over the past decade are becoming a half-hearted anomaly. Despite living in a nation heavily plagued with the looming threat of terror, a deeply rooted partisan divide, heightening racial tension, police brutality, encouraged practice of misogyny, and disastrous immigration policies, fewer and fewer Americans are turning to baseball for much needed unity. Instead, on Sundays Americans continue to seek asylum from a nation in dire straights.
The high scoring and violent nature of the National Football League serves Americans with a weekly outlet for sports fans of all ages. Football has officially overthrown baseball’s century old rule over the hearts of American sports enthusiasts. Baseball has begrudgingly assumed its position beneath football because the two games are vastly different in nature, and football simply has a greater appeal to the American consumer. Who seeks immediate gratification and lacks the stamina to withstand the lengthy Major League Baseball season.
The inevitable decay of baseball began thirty years ago, which is demonstrated by steadily declining World Series viewership as the five most watched World Series were from 1978–1982. Much like the bulk of its viewers, Major League Baseball has grown old and tiresome. Baseball continues to lose its foothold on the national stage, earning most of their revenue from loyal baseball fans in local markets rather than a national audience. The methodical pace of the game and minimal scoring simply doesn’t appeal to the American youth anymore. Odds are those who grew up during baseball’s steroid era, from 1994–2002, are the last breed of Americans who grew up sharing the love for America’s game with the generation before them.
The most devoted generation of baseball fans continues to grow older, as the median age of baseball fans has increased over the past five years from 50-years-old to 55-years old. The average baseball enthusiast was born in the early sixties, during the height of the Cold War. Born towards the end of America’s baby boom, baseball fans are probably too young to remember President John F. Kennedy’s historic three years in office. Therefore, an America that has strong diplomatic ties with Cuba is unknown to many of baseball’s most loyal viewers.
One of the most controversial and aggressive foreign policy decisions of the twentieth century was the Cuban Trade Embargo. Enacted by President Kennedy on February 7th 1962, the embargo represents the utmost severe response to the looming danger of the Cuban Missile Crisis and international spread of Communism. Kennedy’s boldest piece of legislation assuaged panicked Americans, by restricting Americans from traveling, trading, and communicating with their Latin neighbors. For the better half of the twentieth century, the looming threat of Communism and nuclear war imposed by the Soviet Union plagued the hearts of many presidents, congressmen, athletes, factory workers, and mothers. Due to an impending cataclysm, The Cuban Trade Embargo became a standard foreign policy stance for nine presidents since Kennedy was assassinated. Only proving to grow stronger with time, wavering on occasion and enabling the United States to accept small amounts of Cuban refugees seeking political asylum from Fidel Castro’s fascist regime.
Fidel Castro was a determined and strong minded revolutionary, who haunted American politicians and dignitaries for nearly fifty years. The United States once had a strong relationship with Fidel Castro, they even supported Castro’s efforts to overthrow his predecessor Fulgencio Batista. It wasn’t until Fidel openly expressed his support for the Soviet Union that the United States began to view Castro as a threat.
Fidel Castro’s fascist regime ruled Cuba for decades, allowing Castro to impose his conservative social views, aggresive and at times destructive foreign policy, and insulating economic reform upon all Cubans with little to no push back. Both fascist and democratic politicians alike have revealed their admiration for Castro, often alluding to Cuba’s 98% literacy rate, and his unique ability to fend off the United States for a half century. Despite Cuba’s widespread influence throughout South America, not a single American president has openly expressed support for the callous leader.
Over the past fifty years many Presidential candidates have fought tirelessly to expose holes in the foreign policy of their opposition, but all politicians who have ascended into the national spotlight share hostility towards Cuba. An optimist would describe the relationship between Cuba and the United States as muddy, at best. It seems times are changing, as early in the twenty-first century the United States made considerable leaps towards restoring diplomatic ties with their latin neighbors, partially due to the resignation of Fidel Castro.
President Obama spearheaded a change of ties, restoring a diplomatic relationship with Cuba in December 2014. Obama even became the first president in a long time to visit the island, when Air Force One took a trip south to broadcast the newly found friendship between the once indefinite foes. Today, not only can Americans trade with Cuba, Americans can visit the island, including those who sought asylum in the United States during the tyrannical reign of Castro’s fascist regime.
The restoration of full diplomatic ties with Cuba marks an extremely progressive foreign policy stance for both nations and is projected to revive a once symbiotic trade relationship. The lifted embargo marks a sudden change of heart on the behalf of American politicians. The once murky relationship between the United States and Cuba resolving into translucency came as a shock to many Americans, despite a nationally televised indicator of an increasingly welcoming America.
Before the embargo was lifted, Cuban born players were few and far between in Major League Baseball. The risk was simply too high, as often signing a Cuban player involved stealthily removing him from Cuba and bringing him to the states to compete against a higher level of competition. Despite the lack of Cuban born players in the big leagues, they never seem to disappoint by often making tantalizing plays that baseball fans crave. Due to humble beginnings and a warm climate, Cuban baseball players in Major League Baseball display unmatched athleticism, inexhaustible ambition, and the spark plug many franchises need.
For Major League Baseball the restoration of diplomatic ties with Cuba couldn’t have come at a better time. If the mania that surrounded Yasiel Puig’s rookie season was any indicator, the deep home runs, bases stolen with ease, runners thrown out from the warning track, and rocketed base hits were the plays that would energize a new audience of young baseball fans. It seems the meteoric rise of Yasiel Puig cleared the path for many other Cuban players in the big leagues. Cuban born players have officially established their foothold on Major League rosters, as Cuba only trails behind the Dominican Republic and Venezuela for the most players on opening day rosters. Major League Baseball also is starting to challenge the National Football League, by earning a record high in revenue this past season, which is for the most part due to many long term television contracts and a growing national audience.
The influx of Cuban born players into the big leagues has introduced a new group of young players that has engaged a new generation of baseball fans. Aroldis Chapman, Jose Abreu, Yasiel Puig, Kendrys Morales, Yoenis Cespedes, and Jose Fernandez in recent years have proven themselves to be some of Major League Baseball’s top talent. The all-star pedigree of a lot of these Cuban players has yielded multi-million dollar contracts or earning potential, once inaccessible to Cubans under a fascist regime.
The extraordinary rise of Cuban players to national stardom may come as a shock to many historians given the muddy past between the United States and Cuba, but baseball fans have a seemingly unique ability to forgive and forget. Cuban born players have not just been allowed to immigrate to the United States and play in the big leagues, but they also have been embraced with open arms by baseball enthusiasts of all ages.
For years Cuban players have been hungry to escape the confines of a fascist regime and showcase their talents on baseball’s biggest stage, while Major League Baseball has been awaiting a savior to rejuvenate an aging game. Cuban born baseball players and Major League Baseball have come together to form a symbiotic bond that has saved professional baseball from impending doom. The relationship between Cuba and Major League Baseball is indicative of the ideal trade scheme envisioned by those in support of restoring diplomatic ties between the United States and Cuba.
The lowering of Fidel Castro’s iron fist and compliance on behalf of the Obama administration has proven to be a historic representation of the development that derives from cooperation. The benefits of moving beyond decades old conflict is a certitude that is seemingly lost upon many of the world’s leaders. Often heavy sanctions or, in extreme scenarios, war seem to be the resolution to problems convoluted by hate and an ever lasting bitterness towards another. One cannot deny that when individuals, families, companies, and even nations befriend and restore relationships with those whom were once considered enemies, our earth makes considerable progress.
Both Major League Baseball and the National Football League are only rising in popularity, and are showing no signs of stopping anytime soon. To many executives of both the MLB and the NFL, the competition for the audience of American sports fan is not one that can be won. Instead many top tier sports executives have accepted sharing the prestigious label of “national pastime” between the two sports. Besides September and early October the NFL and MLB rarely compete for the same audience on a game to game basis, making it easier for the two to coexist.
The coexistence of two major powers is something not lost upon our sports industry, but was seemingly lost upon our government in the twentieth century. For the better half of a century the United States refused to coexist with Cuba, but it seems times are changing. The United States restoring diplomatic ties with Cuba marks an important moment in American history, in which American foreign policy was positively influenced by the righteous practices of the private sector. The role Cuban players helped to revive Major League Baseball, serves as a perfect example of how sometimes an entire industry can be saved by the unlikeliest of heroes.
References:
Chemi , Eric, and Mark Fahey. “Play Ball! Make Money! MLB’s Wealth of Riches.” CNBC, CNBC, 6 Apr. 2015, www.cnbc.com/2015/04/06/the-state-of-baseball-as-a-business-on-opening-day.html.
Lee, Brianna et al. “Timeline: U.S.-Cuba Relations.” Council on Foreign Relations, Council on Foreign Relations, 2017, www.cfr.org/cuba/timeline-us-cuba-relations/p32817.
Press, Associated. “Cuban Players on MLB Rosters Rise in 2016 amid High-Profile Defections.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 5 Apr. 2016, www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/15133782/cuban-players-mlb-rosters-rise-2016-amid-high-profile-defections.
Rovell, Jeff Phillips and Darren. “Examining the State of Baseball.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 19 Mar. 2015, www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/12508142/major-league-baseball-dying-think-again.
