Team Cuba tests fans loyalties

Team Cuba tests fans' loyalties

Cuban supporters back team, not Castro

Mike Berardino
Sports columnist

March 19, 2006

SAN DIEGO · Willie Suarez was 19 when he lost his mother, aunt and
little sister because of what Fidel Castro has done to Cuba.

Thirteen of them set out on a 10-foot raft, desperate for freedom. Only
seven survived. That was a dozen years ago.

Suarez spent 18 months in a refugee camp at Guantanamo Bay before
joining the U.S. Marine Corps in 1997. Staff Sgt. Suarez has served his
new country in Iraq and through a pair of tours in Afghanistan.

Five times he has applied for a visa to visit his homeland and see the
grandparents and uncles that remain. All five times he has been
rejected, yet a part of him will always be Cuban.

That's why you could find Suarez on a concourse 20 rows behind the Cuban
dugout Saturday afternoon. Down on the field Team Cuba was putting the
finishing touches on a 3-1 win over the heavily favored Dominican
Republic in the semifinals of the World Baseball Classic.

Up in the Petco Park stands several dozen transplanted Cubans were
whooping it up.

Whistles blowing. Air horns blaring. Flags waving.

Dancing. Chanting. Singing.

"Uno mas!" they pleaded as legendary pitcher Pedro Luis Lazo faced
Alfonso Soriano, the potential tying run. When Soriano struck out to end
the game, the throng rejoiced.

The men in red noticed. Cuban left fielder Frederich Cepeda noted far
more Dominicans live in the United States and how "it was a nice
surprise to see so many people cheering for us."

As they walked to their bus afterward, Team Cuba found an even larger
crowd waiting for them outside the stadium. They did not stop and sign
autographs; that would be too dangerous considering the ever-present
fears of defection.

But many of the players did wave to their fans. Some of them pumped a
victorious fist.

"This is a revolutionary team," Cepeda said. "Baseball is not judged by
the price of the athletes but by the heart of the people."

This victory didn't just vault Cuba into Monday night's championship
game. It also tested loyalties, stretched explanations and offered this
brainteaser.

How can a Cuban émigré root for Castro's national team?

"In politics I'm an American," Suarez said with a smile. "In baseball
I'm Cuban."

As if to spell out this dichotomy, Suarez wore a Cuban flag around his
shoulders, a Cuban cap on his head and a pair of tiny flags atop that
cap. One was Old Glory, the other the red and gold of the U.S. Marine Corps.

Beneath his sweatshirt, Suarez wore a white T-shirt with a message in
Spanish. Translated it read, "Cuba is champion. Castro is trash."

He wanted to wear it openly during the game, he said, but security
people made him cover it up. The same sort of thing happened in Puerto
Rico, when fans displayed "Abajo [Down With] Fidel" signs behind home
plate until WBC organizers confiscated them.

After the game, Suarez would take off his sweatshirt and parade his
message through the stands. But his support was fully behind the same
Cuban club for which Antonio Castro, the president's son, is team doctor.

"The players get one day of happiness," said Suarez, who made the trip
down from Camp Pendleton.

Of course so does Castro. It didn't take much imagination to see him
smoking a huge victory cigar after this comeback win. Or rubbing his
hands in anticipation of another baseball title on U.S. soil to go with
a gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

"I don't care about that as long as my family is happy back home,"
Suarez said. "Castro didn't make baseball."

He gestured down to the field.

"This is not Castro out there," he said. "This is Cuba."

What about Yulieski Gourriel, Cuba's 21-year-old star second baseman?
Wouldn't Suarez like to see him defect during Cuba's first trip to the
U.S. in seven years?

On the open market Gourriel might fetch $5 million a year or more.
Instead he lives below the poverty line and is barely known outside Cuba.

"It's his decision," Suarez said. "If he wants to be Castro's butt
kisser, it's up to him. However if he plays good baseball and he wins
and he makes my family happy and the Cuban people happy and the people
that are watching the game right now, the 10 million Cubans, good for him."

Later, somebody asked Cuban DH Yoandry Garlobo if this was the greatest
victory in the long, proud history of Cuban baseball. He smiled.

"I hope not," he said. "The best victory will be on Monday."

And with it another night of tested loyalties and painful alliances.

Staff Writer Mike Berardino can be reached at mberardino@sun-sentinel.com.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/baseball/marlins/sfl-mikeb19mar19,0,804071.column?track=rss