‘A dream and an achievement.’ Cuban team in Little League World Series for first time

When Bayamo Little League defeated Habana del Este Little League 6-2 with four runs in the top of the seventh inning, the team from the eastern end of Cuba didn’t just win its national tournament, the players secured a special place for themselves in Cuban baseball lore.

They’re going to Williamsport.

With their victory on March 5, Bayamo became the first Cuban program to qualify for the Little League World Series, a milestone for a country that has baseball roots dating back to the 1860s.

The team will travel to South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, this summer to play in the LLWS, a global tournament that will present its 76th edition in August.

“For Cubans, competing in this type of competition is always a dream and an achievement,” said José Rodríguez, who pitched for Team Cuba during this year’s World Baseball Classic.

“For the Cuban people, it is important to see those children play at a high level of baseball in that category,” Rodríguez added. “Even though our children play good baseball, the people of Cuba will always be grateful for what they achieve, no matter what result they get. We will be very happy to see them play there.”

Long Journey

Cold War politics are at the heart of why it’s taken so long for Cuba to get an invitation to central Pennsylvania. A better question might be, what caused the breakthrough?

And the simple answer would be that times change. Relations between the two countries thawed somewhat during President Obama’s administration. In 2015, Penn State became the first U.S. college team to play clubs from Cuba’s top league. Months later, an exhibition series was held between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cuban national team at Latin American Stadium with Obama in attendance. Progress was being made on the baseball front.

Meanwhile, Little League was thinking about expanding from 16 teams to 20. And with international tensions easing, Cuba seemed a natural place to grow the tournament. Little League, a not-for-profit that serves 2 million young people in more than 80 countries around the world, began to focus on the Caribbean and Latin America regions.

Puerto Rico, Panama and Cuba were identified as the international teams to add to the tournament. Under a rotation set in 2019, each of those countries was guaranteed that one of its teams would be granted direct entry into the LLWS twice in the three tournaments from 2022 to 2024.

In 2022, Puerto Rico and Panama competed in South Williamsport. In 2023, Cuba’s best team will now go as an automatic bid without having to win out in the Caribbean regional tournament. The same goes for Cuba in 2024.

Daniel Velte, the senior operations executive for Little League Baseball and Softball, noted that the Cuban Baseball Federation came in strong when Little League initially approached them.

“As we established a relationship with them, it was a unique opportunity for us to get them into the program and offer the Little League program to those kids in Cuba,” Velte said. “And then they came in with around 700 teams.”

Often when Little League has attempted expansion, getting full buy-in from a country has been tricky. Youth baseball officials in a new country would promise that a certain number of teams would play, then would wait and see how it worked out before fully committing to Little League. This wasn’t the case with Cuba.

The 700 teams were a significant commitment and exactly what Little League was looking for.

As Little League and the Cuban Baseball Federation worked together, they singled out 180 local leagues where the teams would participate under the Little League umbrella. Under this format, the leagues must hold a regular season with at least 12 games.

“As part of our trips to Cuba over the past few years, we have seen first hand the passion for the game at the local level and the excitement of having the opportunity to compete for a chance at the Little League World Series championship banner throughout the tournament season,” Latin America Region Director Carlos Pagan said.

Following the conclusion of the regular season, Bayamo Little League, along with 15 other community-based teams, competed for the country’s first bid to the Little League World Series in the Cuban National Tournament.

While Cubans may be thankful for what they achieved by just reaching the tournament in the first place, as Rodríguez said, this Bayamo club can really play.

Bayamo won the tournament spot with an 8-2 record in the region series against the other top Cuban teams. If the .800 winning percentage wasn’t impressive enough, the club produced 93 runs in just 10 games. Yes, that isn’t a typo – 93. That total includes a 21-2 victory in Round 2 of the region tournament.

Bayamo will be there. But they weren’t the first Cuban Little League team to try and reach the fields of South Williamsport.

In 2019, when the Cuban Baseball Federation and Little League first announced the partnership, a club from Havana became the first Cuban team to attempt to qualify through the Caribbean Region tournament. Havana Little League went 5-2 and was eventually knocked out in the semifinals by Pabao Little League from Willemstad, Curaçao. Pabao went on to win the region and international championship before falling in the Little League World Series championship.

The LLWS was then canceled in 2020 because of COVID-19, and 2021 was limited to American teams. But in 2022, Cuba tried again to qualify through the Caribbean Region without an automatic bid, represented by Liga Santa Clara de Santa Clara. This time, Cuba made the Caribbean Region championship but ended up losing again to Pabao Little League. Again, in the main tournament, Pabao made it all the way to the Little League World Series championship.

‘This Was Our Passion’

So, what does sending its first team to one of the largest youth baseball tournaments in the world mean to a country that identifies baseball as its national game? In a word, validation. From what Cuban baseball expert and photographer Phil Selig can gather, the excitement is there.

The ballpark for the Little League qualifier had a big turnout and, from afar, Selig noticed a lot of engagement in Facebook groups for Cuban baseball.

Baseball engagement in the country is at a high. Not only is Cuba sending its first team to the LLWS, but the country also participated in the World Baseball Classic, where the national team advanced to the semifinals before losing to the United States.

Selig pointed to good-performing teams in the World Baseball Classic and Little League as big boosts to the baseball ego of the country. Now Cuba looks toward the Little League World Series to spark even more youth engagement in a sport that is becoming more structured.

Growing up in Santa Cruz del Sur, Rodríguez remembers playing baseball every day after school with other children.

“That was our passion,” Rodríguez said. “For Cubans, since we were born and we began to take our first steps in baseball, it is very important.”

In the World Baseball Classic, Rodríguez threw 2 1/3 innings throughout Team Cuba’s run. He even struck out tournament-leading home run hitter Trea Turner in the eighth inning of Cuba’s semifinal matchup against the United States.

“I would like to tell (Bayamo) to keep doing it the way they do, I am a fan of theirs with every game I see and the way they play … they do it with love, passion and the desire to be great in the future,” Rodríguez said. “I will enjoy every game of theirs (in Williamsport) and I will be encouraging them from a distance.”

Ready for some baseball

South Williamsport and its neighbor across the Susquehanna River are ready to welcome Bayamo. Hosting the Little League World Series annually turns a Pennsylvania community of nearly 30,000 into a spot rich with cultures from around the world.

Williamsport Mayor Derek Slaughter, who attends as many games as possible, enjoys the relationships built between kids from all parts of the world and is looking forward to Cuba becoming a part of the event.

“For the Cuban Little Leaguers and their families to come here and play and interact with other American teams and international teams enhances the experience of the Little League World Series,” he said.

While only time will tell how many fans the Cuban team attracts, the mayor hopes the Bayamo Little Leaguers take back home with them the scope of the entire experience, from staying at the grove — the teams-only barracks where they are housed — to hanging out with other kids their age.

“To be together, play games together, to go swimming and all the things that kids do, and to be able to do that with kids from around the world … that entire experience is what I hope they take away,” Slaughter said. “I hope it’s something that they’ll remember for the rest of their lives.”

Michael Quinn is a journalism student at Penn State.