Cuban beisboleros lose livelihood, will they shoot for U.S.?

Now we know who likely will be the next two Cubans to try to make the trip to the United States in search of political asylum.

Yadel Marti and Yasser Gomez were baseball players with the Havana Industrials (one of the Cuban League’s top teams) who also played for Team Cuba in international competition.

YET THE TWO had their athletic careers in Cuba cut short for political reasons. Vague statements published in the Granma newspaper said they committed “grave act(s) of indiscipline.”

It probably means that they were caught considering the thought of coming to the United States out of hope of playing professional baseball in this country. In a country that considers its success in international baseball tournaments to be a political statement, the idea of preferring to play elsewhere is anti-Cuba.

Hence, the two are being punished in the ultimate way that totalitarian states do – they prevent people from working at the profession of their choice.

Which means Marti and Gomez are now going to have to live in a financially strapped country without access to the perks that come to Cuba’s elite athletes (mostly the ability to purchase foreign goods during their travels abroad).

BUT WITH THEIR careers as baseball players over in Cuba, there is very little to prevent them from now trying to come to the United States (aside from the fact that the direct route from Havana to Key West is risky, and the indirect route through Mexico poses its own risks).

It won’t shock me in the least to learn that sometime in early 2009, the two either made it to U.S. shores (Key West, Fla., or Brownsville, Texas), or were caught trying – which means they will wind up being disciplined severely by the Cuban criminal justice system.

Whether they have a future in U.S. professional baseball is questionable, mainly because of their ages. Marti is 29, while Gomez is 28. Considering that many would-be professional athletes from other countries require a stint in the minor leagues (to acculturate themselves to U.S. daily life, if nothing else), it could mean they would both be in their early 30s before making it onto major league rosters.

Which means ball clubs in this country usually prefer younger athletes. Consider the recent signing by the Chicago White Sox of Dayan Viciedo, another star of the Cuban League who recently defected from Cuba (a.k.a., gave up on the revolution, in Castro-speak).

HE IS 19, and there are some baseball types who think he is “too old” to seriously adjust to U.S.-style baseball. The White Sox took their chance because of the success they had this year with Cuban defector Alexi Ramirez, who not only made the major league team in his first year in the U.S. but also was a runner-up for American League “Rookie of the Year.”

It is because of the single-mindedness that Cuba goes about developing athletes (using the model of the old Soviet Union in training would-be Olympians from the time they were very young children) that makes me convinced Marti and Gomez will soon make the effort to come to the United States.

It’s not like either of these men is capable of doing anything beyond playing baseball (or perhaps coaching it, once their physical skills deteriorate below the level required to play the game at the elite levels).

So what do they have to lose, now that they have lost everything that their lives in Cuba were trained for? It literally is the same story as that of Orlando Hernandez, the Cuban pitcher (also with the Havana Industrials and Team Cuba) who was suspended for life after his half-brother defected.

HERNANDEZ HAS SAID he likely would never have been able to make the jump from his homeland had he been permitted to continue to play baseball in Cuba.

What will stir up interest is that U.S. baseball officials always are looking for more venues to find athletic talent for the 30 existing teams of Major League Baseball.

It is the same reason that U.S. baseball officials are getting so worked up over the thought of signing Junichi Tazawa. The Japanese citizen is still an amateur athletically, and tradition says he should sign with a team in either of the two professional leagues there before someday coming to play in the United States.

But it is that desire to find talent on the international level that keeps Major League Baseball at the level of the elite league when it comes to professional baseball.

AND THAT INCLUDES all those “peloteros” from Latin American countries who play their summers in the United States, before returning to their home countries.

It is the reason why the World Baseball Classic, to be held next March just before the 2009 regular season, will be worth watching, even though Team Cuba will be without Gomez or Marti.

Seeing all those stars in their “proper” context, along with the stars of the quality professional leagues in Japan and Mexico, will give the game a jolt – even if some people can’t see beyond the Kansas City Royals or other parochial teams when they look at the sport.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: At least two more ball players will be trying to make the trip (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2008/11/two-cubans-bann.html) in coming months from Cuba to the United States.