Play ball--everywhere!(Athletic Arena)

• Author: Sommerville, Diane Miller

BASEBALL permeates Cuban culture and identity. Popular song lyrics are infused with baseball metaphors; animated conversations about pelota (ball) can be overheard any time at Havana cafes and parks; thousands drink sweet Cuban coffee while attending baseball games held in stadiums designed to hold from 300 to 55,000 spectators. Baseball is in the blood of the Cuban people.

How did a sport originating in the U.S., the much-demonized enemy of Castro's Cuba, become the obsession of the inhabitants of this Caribbean island nation? The answer lies in the country's colonial past. By the 19th century, the island already had been colonized by Spain for several hundred years. Cuba's elites, bristling at the increasingly oppressive Spanish rule, began sending their sons to the U.S. to be educated in Catholic universities and colleges like Georgetown and St. John's in order to escape Spanish influence.

Some, like Esteban Bellan, returned after the American Civil War with knowledge of the game, and shared their passion and expertise with their fellow Cubans. Bellan helped found the island's first baseball club, which helped launch the sport as Cuba's national game. By 1878, the Cuban League had been organized, just two years after the National League was founded in the U.S. Baseball took hold quickly, especially among nationalist sympathizers, because it was seen as antithetical to the values and institutions of the Spanish imperial power. For Cubans, baseball became associated with freedom and resistance, in contrast to bullfighting, the Spanish sport that was increasingly linked to tyrannical imperial rule and considered retrograde and inhumane.

In fact, baseball became a significant source of contention between colony and metropole. Spain attempted to abolish baseball for being an "anti-Spanish game conducive to uprisings." Spain also grew alarmed that baseball, through competitions and tours, was facilitating warm relations between the U.S. and Cuba. Thus, baseball long has been an important component of Cuban national identity.

Following Cuban independence, and freed from Spanish efforts to check the expansion of baseball, the sport's popularity exploded. After the Spanish-American War in 1898, Cuban players dotted the rosters of U.S. teams, and play between Cuban and American clubs increased. Cuba became a regular winter stop for American teams and players. A few squads held spring training on the island. Jackie Robinson worked out there in 1947...