Raidel Martinez signed a save. Author: Yuki Oboshi

There is no other word that can define it with such precision, no matter how nearly clichéd its use is in baseball. Passion. And what else, if not this, reveals the image of people standing right in front of the screen of the Yara cinema in Havana this Wednesday morning, before coming to work, so as not to miss the game of Cuba in the World Classic?

Fury, madness, tradition. All this is a ball for the Cuban, and the victory over Australia in the phase of sudden death, which gave way to the semi-finals, turned this country on its head. If the setbacks get worse, the triumphs set a different rhythm for the whole of Cuba. There is nothing better than winning baseball, and the so-called “Acere Team” won everyone’s sympathy with their claws.

But the quintessence of hope that comes from a team that will fight for glory in Miami is the unmistakable experience on and off the field and the carefree spirit he inherited from the 2006 runner-up team that feared nothing because she had nothing. lose, and that’s how he went and went against all odds and established himself in the elite, which corresponds to the ball of this Island in history.

And in all this there is another key word: union. In Cuba this 5th. World classics, here and there converge in harmony, while the boundaries are blurred by the power of the eternal Cuban identity, which redoubles its spirit in a sport that is not in vain the cultural heritage of the nation.

For this reason, if many of us criticized mentor Armando Johnson at the beginning for controversial tactical decisions that could well have cost him a premature expulsion, now we must recognize him and even thank him for his ability to manage such a diverse group. Cuba was keynote and only a Cuban like Mandy could respond with such efficiency after a while.

I know in sports today you think one thing and tomorrow another, and there is a very thin line between glory and failure, but I feel that whatever happens in Miami, before and after, will mark the performance of this fantastically named team as harsh. , with this word, which, although it seems tasteless, belongs only to us and will henceforth identify us among so many “monsters” of baseball.

Source: Juventud Rebelde