This seems like small step in the right direction:
Cuba announced Friday that island athletes will be allowed to sign contracts to compete in foreign leagues, a shift from decades of policy that held professional sports to be anathema to socialist ideals.
The measure promises to greatly increase the amount of money baseball players and others are able to earn, and seems geared toward stemming a continuing wave of defections by athletes who are lured abroad by the possibility of lucrative contracts, sapping talent from national squads.
…
Athletes will be eligible to play abroad as long as they fulfill their commitments at home, the Communist Party newspaper Granma reported.
“It will be taken into account that they are in Cuba for the fundamental competitions of the year,” Granma said.
So it seems that they can’t play abroad if it interferes with the Cuban season. I suspect there will be lots of exemptions, however. Nice to see communism continuing to fail. Maybe there will be a major league team in Havana in my lifetime.
Hat tip, Cybermetrics.
I concur. Hopefully Cuba will be a free nation one day and her people free to come and go as they please.
Cuban communism is only ‘failing’ insofar as it’s the victim of US economic sanctions and imperialism. Hopefully Cuba can become a more open society whilst maintaining an economic system that benefits all Cubans instead of the rich oligarchs of the pre-revolutionary era.
Does this mean that Cuban doctors, engineers, lawyers, actors, musicians, etc. are still effectively slaves?
There was some talk about this in the Japanese press back in early August (Sports Hochi via Yakyu Baka).
It’d be interesting to see what kind of bidding war could take place between NPB and MLB teams for Cuban players. Obviously MLB teams can and will offer more money but I wonder if there will be pressure from the Cuban government towards playing places other than the US?
If the Rays can hold on long enough in the Trop maybe they’ll move to Havana.
WeWanttheFunk » Of course it does. I would not be surprised if this was a way to lure defectors back so they could be thrown in jail.
Alas, Teofilo Stevenson and Javier Sotomayor–you were born too late.
Apparently the Castros are tired of watching many of their best athletes slip out of their grasp to freedom to the tune of pointing and laughter from the US, and have decided to loot their large paychecks to help keep their slave state going a little while longer instead. One hopes that most if not all of said athletes will use the increased access to the outside world to slip their chains.
John Seal,
Do you call yourself a progressive or a communist?
John Seal is our man in Havana.
Hm.
Readers actually interested in Cuban economics and politics might want to try reading about it — and I mean someplace other than a baseball blog.
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