HAVANA, Cuba, March 20 (acn) Cuban President Raul Castro welcomed the Cuban delegation that participated in the 2009 World Baseball Classic when they arrived on Friday morning at the Jose Marti International Airport in Havana.
Raul greeted each member of the delegation and urged them to continue working hard for future tournaments.
During a brief ceremony, Frederich Cepeda, the best Cuban player during the competition, thanked the Cuban people and authorities for their constant support.
"We would have liked to return with the victory for our people but it was not possible on this occasion," he said. "We are all here, holding our heads high and willing to continue giving our best for our Revolution," he added.
Cepeda stressed that the experiences learned during the Classic would help Cuban baseball players improve their quality and performance.
The keynote address at the ceremony was delivered by VP Esteban Lazo, who, paraphrasing an idea of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, said: "Regardless of the result, what really matters is the honor and courage with which you fight for the triumph."
Lazo added that, although they wanted the victory, the Cuban people admire and recognize the effort and loyalty of the team.
He also praised the exceptional technical skills of the Cuban players that were reflected in the victories obtained against powerful teams full of professional players from several leagues around the world.
The Cuban VP of the Council of State also recalled the permanent support and encouragement the Cuban squad received from Fidel, Raul and the Cuban people.
He urged the sports authorities to carry out an unhurried, rigorous and thorough analysis of Cuba's participation in the 2009 World Baseball Classic and to take the necessary steps so that Cuba becomes, again, the leading world baseball nation as it has been over the past decades.
Also present at the ceremony was the President of the Cuban Olympic Committee, Jose Ramon Fernandez, as well as other government and sports authorities.
(Recibió Raúl a beisbolistas del equipo Cuba al Clásico)
viernes, 20 de marzo de 2009
Raul Castro Meets European Commissioner for Development
HAVANA, Cuba, March 20 (acn) Cuban President Raul Castro met, on Thursday in Havana, with the European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Assistance, Louis Michel, and the Vice President of the European Parliament, Miguel Angel Martinez, who are on an official visit to Cuba.
According to Granma news daily, they all agreed on the positive state of the recently resumed bilateral cooperation between the European Commission and the Caribbean archipelago.
They also exchanged ideas about the current state of relations between Cuba and the European Union, based on the principles of non interference in domestic affairs and respect for the sovereignty of nations.
Also present in the meeting were Cuban FM Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla; Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz, Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment; and Jorge Marti Martinez, head of the Foreign Relations Department at the Central Committee of Cuba's Communist Party (PCC).
The European Commission was also represented by its Chargé d'affaires in Havana, Javier Niño.
(Recibió Raúl al Comisario Europeo Louis Michel)
According to Granma news daily, they all agreed on the positive state of the recently resumed bilateral cooperation between the European Commission and the Caribbean archipelago.
They also exchanged ideas about the current state of relations between Cuba and the European Union, based on the principles of non interference in domestic affairs and respect for the sovereignty of nations.
Also present in the meeting were Cuban FM Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla; Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz, Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment; and Jorge Marti Martinez, head of the Foreign Relations Department at the Central Committee of Cuba's Communist Party (PCC).
The European Commission was also represented by its Chargé d'affaires in Havana, Javier Niño.
(Recibió Raúl al Comisario Europeo Louis Michel)
Anna Frank Exhibition Opens at Cuban National Library
HAVANA, Cuba, March 19 (acn) The "Anne Frank: an valid history" travelling international exhibition was opened in this capital at a ceremony attended by representatives of the Foundation that carries her name, as well as students, workers, diplomats and intelligentsia.
Doctor Eduardo Torres Cuevas, director of the Jose Marti National Library, thanked the Anna Frank Foundation and the Dutch Embassy for the privilege of this exhibition returning after nine years to show children, young people, and other visitors the horrors of fascism told by a
teenager.
For his part, Kleis Broekhuizen, director of the Foundation, said that since 1985 the exhibition has been taken to over 1,000 cities in at least 40 countries, and has been seen by over 10 million people, half of them young, who have been shocked by the crimes committed during World War II.
Broekhuizen pointed out the goal of this travelling exhibition is to reflect on the current situation and to prevent a holocaust happening again, in which millions of people die. The persecution of the Jews was just one of many barbarities.
The specialist stated that the "Diary of Anne Frank" offers the reality of those times, described by a girl who was hidden in Amsterdam for over two years, together with her dear ones, afraid of being discovered and killed, as finally happened in February 1945 in Auschwitz, a
concentration camp.
Kleis Broekhuizen pointed out that this story, besides being extraordinary, is a warning to the world to be alert to the dangers challenging humanity.
(Inauguran en Biblioteca Nacional exposición sobre Ana Frank)
Doctor Eduardo Torres Cuevas, director of the Jose Marti National Library, thanked the Anna Frank Foundation and the Dutch Embassy for the privilege of this exhibition returning after nine years to show children, young people, and other visitors the horrors of fascism told by a
teenager.
For his part, Kleis Broekhuizen, director of the Foundation, said that since 1985 the exhibition has been taken to over 1,000 cities in at least 40 countries, and has been seen by over 10 million people, half of them young, who have been shocked by the crimes committed during World War II.
Broekhuizen pointed out the goal of this travelling exhibition is to reflect on the current situation and to prevent a holocaust happening again, in which millions of people die. The persecution of the Jews was just one of many barbarities.
The specialist stated that the "Diary of Anne Frank" offers the reality of those times, described by a girl who was hidden in Amsterdam for over two years, together with her dear ones, afraid of being discovered and killed, as finally happened in February 1945 in Auschwitz, a
concentration camp.
Kleis Broekhuizen pointed out that this story, besides being extraordinary, is a warning to the world to be alert to the dangers challenging humanity.
(Inauguran en Biblioteca Nacional exposición sobre Ana Frank)
Cuban Films Exhibited in Lebanon
HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 20 (acn) A festival of Cuban cinema was inaugurated in packed theater at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts in Beirut , on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC).
The week-long Festival, which opened with Grammy nominee Strawberry and Chocolate, by Tomas Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío, has the auspices of the Cuban Embassy in Lebanon and the prestigious Academy.
Also to be screened during the event are "Roble de olor", by Rigoberto López; "Suite Habana", by Fernando Pérez, and "That Silly Age", by Pavel Giroud, as well as the exhibition of some posters on Cuban films.
Khalil Smayra, audiovisual director of the renowned Lebanese cultural institution expressed his satisfaction for screening Cuban movies to mark the 50th anniversary ICAIC's founding.
For her part, M. Isabel Velázquez, in charge of Cultural Affairs with the Cuban diplomatic mission, made reference to the objectives of her government of bringing culture to the people, hence the coincidence of ICAIC's founding with the triumph of the Cuban Revolution five decades
ago.
She explained that despite the negative impact of the US blockade on national life, Cuban cinema has maintained its identity and essence, with a spirit of renewal.
In this regard, she highlighted the celebration in Cuba of the International Festival of the New Latin American Cinema and the work of the International Film and Television School located in San Antonio de los Baños, on the outskirts of Havana.
(Semana de cine cubano en Líbano)
The week-long Festival, which opened with Grammy nominee Strawberry and Chocolate, by Tomas Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío, has the auspices of the Cuban Embassy in Lebanon and the prestigious Academy.
Also to be screened during the event are "Roble de olor", by Rigoberto López; "Suite Habana", by Fernando Pérez, and "That Silly Age", by Pavel Giroud, as well as the exhibition of some posters on Cuban films.
Khalil Smayra, audiovisual director of the renowned Lebanese cultural institution expressed his satisfaction for screening Cuban movies to mark the 50th anniversary ICAIC's founding.
For her part, M. Isabel Velázquez, in charge of Cultural Affairs with the Cuban diplomatic mission, made reference to the objectives of her government of bringing culture to the people, hence the coincidence of ICAIC's founding with the triumph of the Cuban Revolution five decades
ago.
She explained that despite the negative impact of the US blockade on national life, Cuban cinema has maintained its identity and essence, with a spirit of renewal.
In this regard, she highlighted the celebration in Cuba of the International Festival of the New Latin American Cinema and the work of the International Film and Television School located in San Antonio de los Baños, on the outskirts of Havana.
(Semana de cine cubano en Líbano)
Presence of Camagüey in the International Congress of Sciences of the Earth
There participate the people from Camagüey with a score of works in the International Congress of GeoSciences that takes place in City of the Havana.
By:Rafael Cruz Ramos.
Camagüey, March 20. The investigators of the Geologic Sciences, resided in this county, attend the International Congress of the Geosciences that from last Monday 15 sesions in the Palace of the Conventions in City of the Havana
The twenty works that are presented to the event, contribute significant results in the geology, the mining, the applied computer science, as well as the topics that relate the environment with the economic use of the wealth of the underground, as Carlos Zayas informed , of the Cuban Society of Geology.
The Geominer Company of Camagüey, the Center of Environmental Investigations and of Investigations of the Construction develop promissory projects, some of which are in their final stage, and they are related with gold, nickel, cromita zeolit, minerals for the Industry of Materials of the Construction, among others.
The geologic wealth of our environment also includes marvels as those of the Fossil Forest of Najasa, the Walls and the Hole of Bonet in the Sierra de Cubitas.
By:Rafael Cruz Ramos.
Camagüey, March 20. The investigators of the Geologic Sciences, resided in this county, attend the International Congress of the Geosciences that from last Monday 15 sesions in the Palace of the Conventions in City of the Havana
The twenty works that are presented to the event, contribute significant results in the geology, the mining, the applied computer science, as well as the topics that relate the environment with the economic use of the wealth of the underground, as Carlos Zayas informed , of the Cuban Society of Geology.
The Geominer Company of Camagüey, the Center of Environmental Investigations and of Investigations of the Construction develop promissory projects, some of which are in their final stage, and they are related with gold, nickel, cromita zeolit, minerals for the Industry of Materials of the Construction, among others.
The geologic wealth of our environment also includes marvels as those of the Fossil Forest of Najasa, the Walls and the Hole of Bonet in the Sierra de Cubitas.
New Archeological Findings in Holguin, Cuba
HAVANA, Cuba, March 20 (acn) Recent findings in the Cuban province of Holguin could confirm the existence of an aboriginal and Hispanic community with certain economic development before 1752, when Holguin was granted the title of city.
The evidences found in a house near to the San Isidoro church, still under research, might corroborate the hypothesis supported by specialists from their previous work on the house of the Lieutenant Governor, that suggested there was already an important population group
since the mid-seventeenth century, reported the Ahora newspaper.
According to archaeologist Juan Jardines, the discovery "demonstrates the need to rescue the early history of the city, through the examination of its heritage property," quotes the paper.
The excavations of what could have been the interior courtyard, revealed a collection of time materials like fragments of utilitarian pottery clay, English earthenware of the 18th and 17th Centuries, Spanish majolica in the early eighteenth, and fragments of flint blades, cut in the manner of the aboriginal inhabitants of the area.
"Until today nobody had found traces of development in this area for those years, but the same development processes occurred here as in other places, but they were not recorded for history. This was a forgotten region, "said historian Angela Peña, author of the book “Holguin en dos siglos de arquitectura”.
Specialists from CITMA and the Monuments Office have been working since early March in the building located in Libertad street, as part of one of the three branches of research projects approved here by the Ministry of Culture.
The background of this research is found in the excavations carried out at the house of the Lieutenant Governor and the San Isidoro Church, used as a cemetery in the eighteenth century. "The new findings underline the need for greater attention to the architectural knowledge of history," said Jardines.
The evidences found in a house near to the San Isidoro church, still under research, might corroborate the hypothesis supported by specialists from their previous work on the house of the Lieutenant Governor, that suggested there was already an important population group
since the mid-seventeenth century, reported the Ahora newspaper.
According to archaeologist Juan Jardines, the discovery "demonstrates the need to rescue the early history of the city, through the examination of its heritage property," quotes the paper.
The excavations of what could have been the interior courtyard, revealed a collection of time materials like fragments of utilitarian pottery clay, English earthenware of the 18th and 17th Centuries, Spanish majolica in the early eighteenth, and fragments of flint blades, cut in the manner of the aboriginal inhabitants of the area.
"Until today nobody had found traces of development in this area for those years, but the same development processes occurred here as in other places, but they were not recorded for history. This was a forgotten region, "said historian Angela Peña, author of the book “Holguin en dos siglos de arquitectura”.
Specialists from CITMA and the Monuments Office have been working since early March in the building located in Libertad street, as part of one of the three branches of research projects approved here by the Ministry of Culture.
The background of this research is found in the excavations carried out at the house of the Lieutenant Governor and the San Isidoro Church, used as a cemetery in the eighteenth century. "The new findings underline the need for greater attention to the architectural knowledge of history," said Jardines.
Highlighted in Portugal the work of the cuban woman.
Havana, March 20 (AIN) The revolutionary chore of the Cuban women was highlighted in an international meeting of women taken place in Lisbon, Portugal.
A representation of the Island attended that event on the woman's role of different cultures in the society, organized by the young branch of the Unitary Democratic Coalition of the municipality of Odivelas, refers an information of Latin Press published in digital Granma.
The acting of the Cubans` work was praised in the government's different instances and of the legislative environment, in the solidarity with other countries, and its force in the cause for the liberation of the five antiterrorists from Cuba political prisoners in the United States.
The forum congratulated Ivette García, first secretary of the embassy of the Island in Portugal, for the results of the recent congress of the Federation of Cuban Women, taken place in Havana.
A representation of the Island attended that event on the woman's role of different cultures in the society, organized by the young branch of the Unitary Democratic Coalition of the municipality of Odivelas, refers an information of Latin Press published in digital Granma.
The acting of the Cubans` work was praised in the government's different instances and of the legislative environment, in the solidarity with other countries, and its force in the cause for the liberation of the five antiterrorists from Cuba political prisoners in the United States.
The forum congratulated Ivette García, first secretary of the embassy of the Island in Portugal, for the results of the recent congress of the Federation of Cuban Women, taken place in Havana.
European Commission and Cuba Expand Cooperation
HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 19 (acn) The European Commission (EC) and Cuba expanded their links for cooperation and perspectives of working together, with the inauguration on Thursday in Havana of a meeting on bilateral cooperation.
During the opening of the event at the Meliá Habana Hotel, the Cuban Minister for Foreign Trade and Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca, ratified the willingness of continuing these ties with the EC, on the basis of respect and without conditions.
The European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis ichel, pointed out that the important advances of the Caribbean archipelago in various spheres make it possible to strengthen this dialogue, i.e. education, health, the training of human resources, and the environment.
The vice-president of the European Parliament (EP) Miguel Ángel Martínez, rejected the policy of sanctions and the attempts to condition the dialogue and cooperation of the European Union with the archipelago. He criticized the anti-Cuban Common Position of interference of the mega-
bloc, which the friendship-with-Cuba group he presides over will fight to eliminate.
For two days, the conference will examine themes like food security, economic cooperation and trade, research and development, regional programs in Latin America, and the environment.
Moreover, it will centre its attention in renewable energy, climate change, disaster risk reduction and social sectors.
Also on Thursday, attention was drawn to the perspectives of advancing in regional economic integration that have opened up for Cuba with the Bolivarian Alternative for The Americas (ALBA) and other options to boost ties with Latin American and Caribbean nations.
Cuba has over 51,000 voluntary workers in more than 100 countries, as well as some 30,000 foreign scholarship students in educational centres in the archipelago -a clear commitment in the struggle against underdevelopment.
(Comisión Europea y Cuba amplían vínculos de cooperación)
During the opening of the event at the Meliá Habana Hotel, the Cuban Minister for Foreign Trade and Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca, ratified the willingness of continuing these ties with the EC, on the basis of respect and without conditions.
The European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis ichel, pointed out that the important advances of the Caribbean archipelago in various spheres make it possible to strengthen this dialogue, i.e. education, health, the training of human resources, and the environment.
The vice-president of the European Parliament (EP) Miguel Ángel Martínez, rejected the policy of sanctions and the attempts to condition the dialogue and cooperation of the European Union with the archipelago. He criticized the anti-Cuban Common Position of interference of the mega-
bloc, which the friendship-with-Cuba group he presides over will fight to eliminate.
For two days, the conference will examine themes like food security, economic cooperation and trade, research and development, regional programs in Latin America, and the environment.
Moreover, it will centre its attention in renewable energy, climate change, disaster risk reduction and social sectors.
Also on Thursday, attention was drawn to the perspectives of advancing in regional economic integration that have opened up for Cuba with the Bolivarian Alternative for The Americas (ALBA) and other options to boost ties with Latin American and Caribbean nations.
Cuba has over 51,000 voluntary workers in more than 100 countries, as well as some 30,000 foreign scholarship students in educational centres in the archipelago -a clear commitment in the struggle against underdevelopment.
(Comisión Europea y Cuba amplían vínculos de cooperación)
We are the ones to blame
Reflections of Comrade Fidel
In the game that finished today at almost 3 in the morning between the teams from Japan and Cuba, we were unquestionably defeated.
The organizers of the Classic decided that the three countries in the first three spots of world baseball shall play it out in San Diego, including Cuba arbitrarily in the Asian group despite the fact that we are definitely in the Caribbean.
However, I doubt that any team from the West can defeat Japan and Korea in the group of competitors who will be playing in Los Angeles in the next three days. Only one of the two Asian countries with its quality shall decide who will take the first and second spots in the Classic.
What was important for the organizers was to eliminate Cuba, a revolutionary country that has heroically resisted and has not been able to be defeated in the battle of ideas. Nevertheless, one day we shall again be a dominant power in that sport.
The excellent team representing us in the Classic, made up mostly of young athletes, is without a doubt a genuine representation of the best athletes in our country.
They competed with great courage; they didn’t lose heart and they aimed for victory right up to the last inning.
The line-up, suggested from Cuba by the management and their expert advisors, was good and inspired confidence. It was strong both offensively and defensively. They had a good reserve of pitching talent and strong hitters, in case the changing circumstances of a game would require it. By applying the same concepts, they won and dominated the powerful Mexican team.
I should point out that the leadership of the team in San Diego was very poor. The old criteria of timeworn methods prevailed, against a capable adversary who constantly innovated.
We must learn the relevant lessons.
Baseball today, among all the sports, is the most capable of originating expectations because of the enormous variety of situations that might arise and the specific part played by each of the men on the diamond. It has a reputation everywhere as a truly exciting show. Even though
the stadiums fill up with fans, there is nothing that compares to the pictures captured by the cameras. It seems to have been created so that baseball can be transmitted by that media.
Television heightens interest by going into great detail about every action. It even offers the possibility of seeing the stitching and the rotation of a ball thrown at 100 miles an hour, a ball rolling along a white line or it being caught in the glove of a defender one tenth of a second before or after the runner’s foot touches base. I can think of no other sport which can compete with that variety of situations, except chess, where the activity ceases to be muscular and becomes an
intellectual one, something impossible to televise.
In Cuba, where we practice almost all sports and where we have numerous amateur players, baseball has become a national passion.
We have gone to sleep on our laurels and we are now paying the consequences. Korea and Japan, two countries which are geographically really far away from the United States, have invested abundant economic resources into this imported, or imposed, sport.
Development of such a sports activity in those two Asian nations obeys their own distinctive characteristics. Their inhabitants are hard-working, self-sacrificing and tenacious people.
Japan, a developed and wealthy country with more than 120 million inhabitants, has devoted itself to developing baseball. Like everything under the capitalist system, professional sports are big business, but national will has imposed rigorous norms on their professional players.
Cuban players who have worked in Japan know very well the norms that have been imposed. The salaries being paid to the professionals in the Big Leagues of the U.S.A. are logically much higher than in Japan, a country which, for its part, possesses the most powerful professional
league after that of the U.S. No professional Japanese player is allowed to move on to the U.S. Big Leagues, or to any other foreign country, unless he has played for 8 years in the national Japanese league. For that reason, none of the members on its international team are younger than 28 years old.
Training sessions are incredibly tough and methodical. They have devised technical methods to develop the reflexes each player needs to have. Every day, batters practice with hundreds of balls thrown from the left and the right. As for the pitchers, they are made to throw four hundred balls every day. It they make any mistake in the game, they must then throw one hundred more. They do it with pleasure, as if it were a form of self-punishment. Thus they acquire notable muscle control which obeys the orders sent by their brains. That’s why their
pitchers amaze everyone with their ability to land their throws at the exact spots they choose. Similar methods are applied to each of the activities each of the athletes must carry out at the positions they are defending and in their batting activities.
Athletes in the other Asian country, the Republic of Korea, are developed with similar characteristics, thus turning it into a powerhouse in professional world baseball.
Asians are not as physically strong as their western rivals. Nor are they as explosive. But strength sufficient is not enough to defeat the reflexes that their players have developed; and explosiveness in itself cannot compensate for the methodology and sangfroid of their athletes.
Korea has tried to look for more heavily-built men who are capable of hitting more forcefully.
Our hopes were based on the patriotic dedication of our athletes and the fervor with which they defend their honor and their people, from a pool which is several times, even dozens of times, lesser in human resources as compared, for example, with Japan, discounting from those resources those that are weak in conscience and permit themselves to be bribed by our enemie But this is not enough to maintain our supremacy in baseball. We have to apply methods that are more technical and scientific when we develop our sports figures. Our country’s excellent
educational and sports base allows for that.
Nowadays we have enough young pitchers and batters with magnificent sports qualities. In a nutshell, we have to revolutionize the methods for the preparation and development of our athletes, not just in baseball, but in all the sports disciplines.
Our national team should be returning home in the next few hours. Let us receive them with all the honors their exemplary performance deserves. They are not the ones responsible for the errors that led them to the adverse outcome.
We are the ones to blame, because we weren’t able to correct our errors in time.
Fidel Castro Ruz
March19, 2009
2:58 p.m.
In the game that finished today at almost 3 in the morning between the teams from Japan and Cuba, we were unquestionably defeated.
The organizers of the Classic decided that the three countries in the first three spots of world baseball shall play it out in San Diego, including Cuba arbitrarily in the Asian group despite the fact that we are definitely in the Caribbean.
However, I doubt that any team from the West can defeat Japan and Korea in the group of competitors who will be playing in Los Angeles in the next three days. Only one of the two Asian countries with its quality shall decide who will take the first and second spots in the Classic.
What was important for the organizers was to eliminate Cuba, a revolutionary country that has heroically resisted and has not been able to be defeated in the battle of ideas. Nevertheless, one day we shall again be a dominant power in that sport.
The excellent team representing us in the Classic, made up mostly of young athletes, is without a doubt a genuine representation of the best athletes in our country.
They competed with great courage; they didn’t lose heart and they aimed for victory right up to the last inning.
The line-up, suggested from Cuba by the management and their expert advisors, was good and inspired confidence. It was strong both offensively and defensively. They had a good reserve of pitching talent and strong hitters, in case the changing circumstances of a game would require it. By applying the same concepts, they won and dominated the powerful Mexican team.
I should point out that the leadership of the team in San Diego was very poor. The old criteria of timeworn methods prevailed, against a capable adversary who constantly innovated.
We must learn the relevant lessons.
Baseball today, among all the sports, is the most capable of originating expectations because of the enormous variety of situations that might arise and the specific part played by each of the men on the diamond. It has a reputation everywhere as a truly exciting show. Even though
the stadiums fill up with fans, there is nothing that compares to the pictures captured by the cameras. It seems to have been created so that baseball can be transmitted by that media.
Television heightens interest by going into great detail about every action. It even offers the possibility of seeing the stitching and the rotation of a ball thrown at 100 miles an hour, a ball rolling along a white line or it being caught in the glove of a defender one tenth of a second before or after the runner’s foot touches base. I can think of no other sport which can compete with that variety of situations, except chess, where the activity ceases to be muscular and becomes an
intellectual one, something impossible to televise.
In Cuba, where we practice almost all sports and where we have numerous amateur players, baseball has become a national passion.
We have gone to sleep on our laurels and we are now paying the consequences. Korea and Japan, two countries which are geographically really far away from the United States, have invested abundant economic resources into this imported, or imposed, sport.
Development of such a sports activity in those two Asian nations obeys their own distinctive characteristics. Their inhabitants are hard-working, self-sacrificing and tenacious people.
Japan, a developed and wealthy country with more than 120 million inhabitants, has devoted itself to developing baseball. Like everything under the capitalist system, professional sports are big business, but national will has imposed rigorous norms on their professional players.
Cuban players who have worked in Japan know very well the norms that have been imposed. The salaries being paid to the professionals in the Big Leagues of the U.S.A. are logically much higher than in Japan, a country which, for its part, possesses the most powerful professional
league after that of the U.S. No professional Japanese player is allowed to move on to the U.S. Big Leagues, or to any other foreign country, unless he has played for 8 years in the national Japanese league. For that reason, none of the members on its international team are younger than 28 years old.
Training sessions are incredibly tough and methodical. They have devised technical methods to develop the reflexes each player needs to have. Every day, batters practice with hundreds of balls thrown from the left and the right. As for the pitchers, they are made to throw four hundred balls every day. It they make any mistake in the game, they must then throw one hundred more. They do it with pleasure, as if it were a form of self-punishment. Thus they acquire notable muscle control which obeys the orders sent by their brains. That’s why their
pitchers amaze everyone with their ability to land their throws at the exact spots they choose. Similar methods are applied to each of the activities each of the athletes must carry out at the positions they are defending and in their batting activities.
Athletes in the other Asian country, the Republic of Korea, are developed with similar characteristics, thus turning it into a powerhouse in professional world baseball.
Asians are not as physically strong as their western rivals. Nor are they as explosive. But strength sufficient is not enough to defeat the reflexes that their players have developed; and explosiveness in itself cannot compensate for the methodology and sangfroid of their athletes.
Korea has tried to look for more heavily-built men who are capable of hitting more forcefully.
Our hopes were based on the patriotic dedication of our athletes and the fervor with which they defend their honor and their people, from a pool which is several times, even dozens of times, lesser in human resources as compared, for example, with Japan, discounting from those resources those that are weak in conscience and permit themselves to be bribed by our enemie But this is not enough to maintain our supremacy in baseball. We have to apply methods that are more technical and scientific when we develop our sports figures. Our country’s excellent
educational and sports base allows for that.
Nowadays we have enough young pitchers and batters with magnificent sports qualities. In a nutshell, we have to revolutionize the methods for the preparation and development of our athletes, not just in baseball, but in all the sports disciplines.
Our national team should be returning home in the next few hours. Let us receive them with all the honors their exemplary performance deserves. They are not the ones responsible for the errors that led them to the adverse outcome.
We are the ones to blame, because we weren’t able to correct our errors in time.
Fidel Castro Ruz
March19, 2009
2:58 p.m.
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