“We are committed to recovering past international results,” says baseball executive

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 19 (ACN) National baseball commissioner Ernesto Reinoso holds that the overall commitment is to recover the good results that this sport once boasted and the Cuban people miss so much.

“We have to find a way to stop failing in international events. We have put together a pre-selection of 60 players to play in the upcoming Caribbean Cup in Curaçao (April) and the pre-Olympic tournament in Florida (June), because we want to get back on the path to success that we walked before the acceptance of professional ball players in these competitions,” he remarked. “This pre-selection is subject to further decisions, because Team Cuba does not belong to anyone in particular, but to the more than 10 million inhabitants of the country.”

This provisional team shows a mixture of experienced players and young talents. Many of 24 who will go to Curaçao will also attend and fight for the only ticket available at the pre-Olympic in Florida.

Reinoso hinted that the roster for the U.S. tournament will also include Cubans hired in the Japanese league as well as ball players in foreign clubs without official contracts with the Cuban baseball federation, a step already taken in sports such as volleyball and soccer.