Put Me in Caudillo, I'm Ready to Play!

Matt Welch | March 11, 2009

You do know that the story about Fidel Castro having a major league baseball tryout is an urban legend, right? Anyway, as this Granma translation of El Jefe's commentary on the World Baseball Classic makes clear, he shoulda been a sportswriter:

I am trying to follow the events of the Baseball Classic, thanks to our national television services. [...]

The dangerous and emblematic Ichiro, who had already failed on three occasions, hit a single.

And so on (link via Baseball Primer).

Meanwhile, another very small sign that Raul's regime will be slightly less airbrushy than his brother's:

Havana on Tuesday debuted a baseball video game which includes famous Cuban-born defectors long expunged from official memory here after they abandoned the Communist island to play in the United States.

The country's first baseball video game, MVP Cuba 1.0, features a number of Cuban stars who triumphed in the US major leagues, including star pitchers Orlando Hernandez -- nicknamed "El Duque" -- and Jose Contreras.

The game was unveiled at a state information science center over the weekend, according to Juventud Rebelde daily newspaper.

Link via 3 Days of Cryin'. I wrote about the censored and since-deceased Cuban baseball historian Severo Nieto a few years back.

Comments

Lefiti|3.11.09 @ 6:24PM|#

Gosh, I guess libertarians don't like Castro. This is news.

|3.11.09 @ 6:38PM|#

What system is this for?

I'm assuming the Atari 2600?

|3.11.09 @ 7:02PM|#

I see in the photot that A-Rod's off the juice.

Ska|3.11.09 @ 7:08PM|#

Is photot slang for shild pornogrophy?

Seriously though - I'm also curious as to what system this is played on. I can only hope that Rafting the Carribean gets released here, too.

Ska|3.11.09 @ 7:09PM|#

grrr.....damn you joez law.

Jordan|3.11.09 @ 7:17PM|#

I wonder if they've played Oregon Trail yet. Or Yankee Imperialist Pig Dog Trail, I guess.

Also: Matt, that headline is awesome.

|3.11.09 @ 7:23PM|#

What system is this for?

Altair 8800

Tim Cavanaugh|3.11.09 @ 7:26PM|#

Castro censored a baseball historian? I knew he couldn't be all bad.

Josh|3.11.09 @ 7:47PM|#

Double-thumbs up if that historian was Keith Olbermann.

jester|3.11.09 @ 8:06PM|#

Chico Escuela. Cuban?

ed|3.11.09 @ 8:20PM|#

Jose Contreras "triumphed"? That's pushing it.

Matt Welch|3.11.09 @ 8:38PM|#

Is it premature to declare this the thread of the month?

|3.11.09 @ 8:46PM|#

It's a Matt Welch piece. It must be!

Lefiti|3.11.09 @ 9:00PM|#

Jesus, almost 15 comments on this trite piece of shit. That's pretty good.

|3.11.09 @ 9:09PM|#

Has anyone found any more info on this baseball game? Perhaps the original spanish name would make the googling easier.

The Expatriate|3.11.09 @ 9:59PM|#

Upon searching Escambray, I found this quote:

The U.S. House of Representatives with a Democratic majority launched the extremely protectionist slogan of "buy US goods", to please the unions that supported his campaign. This tramples on a basic principle of the World Trade Organization, since every nation in the world, be they big or small, dream of their development based on trading goods and services.

That's Fidel Fuckin' Castro talking!!!

Kolohe|3.11.09 @ 10:01PM|#

Mr. West-
Here is some more data on the video game.

According to that link, it's a port/mod of EA's MVP 2005. The work was done by a collaboration of a university computer science dept and a sports radio station.

Kolohe|3.11.09 @ 10:03PM|#

Here are a bunch more spanish language stories.

|3.11.09 @ 10:32PM|#

Thanks for that Kolohe, I was hoping that they had their own console; some 8 or 16 bit curiosity perhaps.

|3.11.09 @ 10:33PM|#

If Castro had been become a sportswriter instead of a Commie dictator he would be just "slightly" less repulsive.

ADD Alert|3.12.09 @ 7:13AM|#

Lefiti is Matt Welch @ 8:38 pm and Tim Cavanaugh @ 7:26 pm.

What an attention deficit fag. You are one lame freak Lefiti.

Abdul|3.12.09 @ 8:06AM|#

Is that a picture of Fidel playing baseball or "rehabilitating" a gusano?

highnumber|3.12.09 @ 9:40AM|#

ed,
He has a World Series ring which he was instrumental in earning. Is that not a triumph? He's paid $10M a year. Is that not also a triumph?