Crimson Tide Baseball Team to Travel to Cuba
Yet another U.S. baseball team will travel to Cuba to play a series of exhibition games. The University of Alabama recently announced that its baseball team has received a specific license from OFAC to play an exhibition series in Havana, Cuba, in mid-December 2008.
As we previously reported, a youth baseball team from New Hampshire and Vermont is currently in Cuba playing a series of games (for the latest information on their trip, see this article in yesterday's Rutland Herald).
While most of the details will not be finalized until later this year, the Crimson Tide will play a three-game exhibition series against a group of collegiate level players from the Institute of Superior Physical Education in Havana. The three games will not count towards Alabama’s 56-game schedule during the 2009 season.
“We are very grateful to all the people who worked so hard to make this trip possible,” Alabama head coach Jim Wells said. “This will be the opportunity of a lifetime for the players, coaches and staff who participate. The trip to Havana will be a wonderful educational experience for all of us involved. And, since we will play against some of the very best collegiate players in Havana, this will be a great opportunity for the Crimson Tide program.”
The trip to Cuba is not the first time the Alabama baseball team has played exhibition games off American soil. In 1957, the Crimson Tide team played a 20-game exhibition schedule that included a series of games in Japan.
Meanwhile, in Olympic baseball competition in Beijing, Cuba defeated the U.S. yesterday by a score of 5-4 in 11 innnings. Thus far, Cuba's record is 3-0 and the U.S. team is 1-2.
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