Written by Daniel Trotta at HuffingtonPost.com
The Tampa Bay Rays will become the first Major LeagueBaseball franchise to play in Havana since 1999 when they face Cuba’s national team in an exhibition this month coinciding with a historic visit by U.S. President Barack Obama.
The March 22 game, announced by MLB on Tuesday, has been planned for months. Major League Baseball, the organization that runs professional baseball in North America, said in November it would choose the Rays as the team to play in Havana if it could make a deal with the Cuban Baseball Federation.
“During a time of historic change, we appreciate the constructive role afforded by our shared passion for the game, and we look forward to experiencing Cuba’s storied baseball tradition and the passion of its many loyal fans,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement.
The game will be played at the 45,000-seat Latin American Stadium, site of a 1999 exhibition between the Baltimore Orioles and Cuba’s national team. It has been undergoing improvements, including installation of a new infield, under MLB supervision.
The game takes place 15 months after a thawing of relations between the former Cold War enemies. Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro agreed to normalize relations in December 2014 and the two sides restored diplomatic ties and reopened embassies in Havana and Washington last year.
Obama’s visit on March 21-22 will mark the first by a sitting U.S. president since 1928 and the first since Fidel Castro’s rebels overthrew a pro-American government in 1959.
Earlier on Tuesday The Rolling Stones said they will perform a free outdoor concert in Havana on March 25, a milestone event in a country where the communist government once banned the group’s music as an “ideological deviation.”
The exhibition game also comes amid an effort in both countries to halt the defection of Cuba’s best players. There were a record 150 baseball defections in Cuba last year, according to Cuban journalist Francys Romero.
To continue reading this article, click here.
