Cuba gets its first MLB game in more than half a century

Gabriel Miramar-Garcia | 08-07-2013


Major League Baseball came to Cuba for the first time since 1961 last Sunday, with a surprise replay of the weeks-old 2 May game between the Washington Nationals and Atlanta Braves.

The 3-1 Nationals win was broadcast across the island’s over-the-air network, with the commercials removed. According to the AP, Cuban commentators offered play-by-play over the original English transmission, which was faded out.
While islanders are notoriously baseball-obsessed, they find themselves relying on smuggled press accounts and word of mouth to keep up with the MLB and Cubano stars like Yasiel Puig of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Aroldis Chapman of the Cincinnati Reds.
But the lack of hometown heroes on either team underwhelmed, despite the milestone nature of the broadcast. "It’s interesting to see how they play, but I can’t say it thrilled me all that much because I don’t know any of the players," resident Diego Sierra told the AP. "I would really like to see the Cubans, see how they are developing in that league, really see how well they are doing."