Rusney Castillo: Baseball Can Open Many Doors For Cubans To Emigrate To U.S.
By Johnny Carey, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) --- The Tampa Bay Rays will play a long-anticipated baseball game in Havana, Cuba, this afternoon against the Cuban National Team.
It will be the first time an MLB team will play in Cuba since 1999 when the Baltimore Orioles took on a team of Cuban All-Stars.
While no games have been played since the turn of the century, the prevalence of Cuban players in MLB has forged an undeniable connection between the league and Cuba.
ESPN has understandably focused on the historic contest with seemingly non-stop coverage over the past couple of days, including on-site episodes of "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."
Not everyone, however, is happy about the conditions surrounding the game.
Most notably, ESPN's own Dan Le Batard has voiced his opposition to the fanfare around the game. According to Le Betard, whose family fled Cuba, the celebratory nature of the game ignores the sacrifices and struggles of Cuban exiles who have been brutalized by their government for decades.
He describes it "like watching a funeral morph into a party."
Le Batard's heartfelt position on the polarizing topic is based on concern for the Cuban people, and skepticism about whether anything is actually being done to help them.
If you ask Red Sox outfielder Rusney Castillo, the game could do just that.
Or at the very least, it's a start.
Castillo, who defected in order to sign a $72.5 million contract with the Red Sox, views the game as a manifestation of hope of and opportunity for Cuban baseball players and the general population alike.
"I heard about Obama landing in Cuba [on Monday], and it's great to me because it's a step in the right direction," Castillo said to ESPN's Scott Lauber. "Right now, players who are able to come over here, we have to take a lot of risks. Hopefully the next generation of Cuban players can come over here without that risk. I'm looking forward to a day where the average Cuban can come to the United States, just like us baseball players who have come here to play baseball. I think [baseball] can open a lot of doors to that."
At the time of his defection, Castillo assured everyone who asked that he had no regrets about leaving his homeland. Still, Castillo couldn't completely make amends with the fact that he had left some of his family behind, including his infant son, Rusney Jr.
"The most painful thing is knowing that you're not physically present with your family, your close friends, the people you grew up with in the neighborhood and the fans, who showed me and my team a lot of love. It hurts sometimes to think about that, to think I'm here and they're there," Castillo told ESPN's Gordon Edes last March.
The major constant between Le Batard and Castillo's comments is pain felt by Cubans and Cuban-Americans. One baseball game certainly won't fix that, but its impact is something worth keeping in mind while the game in Havana takes place.
Castillo and the Red Sox have gone on record as eager to travel to Cuba some day, so perhaps the team will even find itself in a similar situation as the Rays in the near future.
Johnny Carey is a senior at Boston College. You can find him on Twitter @JohnnyHeights.
