The next step in restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba? Baseball.
Major League Baseball is intent on playing at least one exhibition game in Cuba, which may be likely as early as 2016.
“To the extent that we can play a role in helping the United States government effectuate a change in policy, that we’re following their lead and we’re acting in a way that’s consistent with what they want us to do, that’s an honor for us,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred told the Wall Street Journal Thursday.
Though Cuba has held the World Baseball Classic in 2006, 2009 and 2013, MLB hasn’t played there since 1999, when the Baltimore Orioles played an exhibition game against the Cuban national team during spring training. The Cuban team then traveled to Baltimore to play an exhibition game at Camden Yards.
More and more Cuban players have come to the U.S. to play in the majors, including Yoenis Cespedes, Yasiel Puig and Jose Abreu, among others. According to STATS, there were 25 Cuban-born players in the major leagues last season, the most since 1970.
“It’s a great source of talent,” Manfred said. “We’ve seen the level of interest that quality Cuban players have generated among major-league clubs. And secondly, Cuba is a country where baseball is part of the culture, like it is here in the United States, and we love markets like that.”
This isn’t the first time Manfred, who took over as commissioner in January, has said the MLB would like to play an exhibition game in Cuba.
After visiting the Miami Marlins spring training camp in Jupiter, Fla., earlier this month, he said the league was in talks with the U.S. government about doing so.
“I can envision a situation, assuming that it is consistent with the government’s policy on Cuba, where we could have ongoing exhibition game activity in Cuba,” he said, adding that Miami — a 90-minute flight away from Cuba’s capital of Havana — is seen as a logical jumping-off point to Latin America.
“I do see Latin America as a place where baseball already has great popularity but also has a great potential for growth from an international perspective,” he said.
President Obama announced in December the U.S. was re-establishing diplomatic ties with the communist island nation since they were severed in 1961.
In another sign of easing relations, Netflix announced last month it would bring its streaming video services to Cuba as soon as its residents could legally subscribe.
American Express and MasterCard have also announced they intend to soon accept international credit cards in Cuba.
