FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Baseball. It’s the national pastime of Cuba and has long united exiles and those still on the island. It also has divided them.
Over the years, dozens of top players have defected to the U.S. On Saturday, a retired group of those players finally matched up against their island counterparts in a game that would have been inconceivable a decade ago and that was nearly derailed earlier this summer.
But the Fort Lauderdale game between former members of the Industriales, Cuba’s version of the Yankees, was cut short. It was canceled after just a few innings because of a thunderstorm.
Originally, it had been slated for last month at Florida International University in Miami. Then the university canceled, citing “contractual issues.” But a letter from the school’s attorney sent to the ACLU shows officials got twitchy about the event’s political nature.
