‘LOOK, look, there goes the animal!”
That phrase was uttered by 70-year-old Julio Garcia every time ESPN cameras showed Fidel Castro watching his Cuban All Stars playing the Baltimore Orioles.
“I’m not calling him an animal, the country is calling him that,” Garcia said.
“There are people dying of hunger in Cuba because he doesn’t want to give up communism, and Cubans think he is an animal for doing this to his people.”
Garcia’s disdain for Castro is so great he was happy when the Orioles won yesterday’s game in Havana, 3-2.
“I don’t want Castro to get the satisfaction of winning,” said Garcia, who left Cuba in 1967.
Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said the “friendly” game “transcends politics.” But Cubans in Union City, N.J., seemed to see it differently.
Rogillo Perez, 66, is an avid baseball fan who sat at the bar of the Sons of Camajuani Social Club to catch every hit, strike and out.
He was upset that the only Cuban spectators inside the 55,000-seat stadium were Castro’s invited guests.
“If he opened the game to the general public there would be 55,000 fans in the stadium and 55,000 others outside trying to get in,” said Perez who left Cuba in 1971.
“Castro doesn’t want a large crowd of people around him. Something could happen,” he said.
Behind him eight men occasionally looking at the television focused more on the game of dominoes they were playing. The snap of the dominoes hitting the tables drowned out the comments made by sportscasters calling the game.
When the Cuban team scored a run in the bottom of the 7th inning the club fell silent. The dominoes stopped snapping.
ESPN showed a smiling Castro.
“They are greeting him like he’s the one who got the hit,” one domino player mumbled in disgust.
When the Cubans tied the game, Garcia said, “Look, look, they will show the animal again – look, there’s the animal standing up.”
At least one person supported the game. A 64-year-old restaurant owner said he hoped it would be a step toward warmer relations and the lifting of the embargo – so food could start flowing to the country where his mother and brothers live.
“But don’t put my name or mention the restaurant because there are Cubans that will run me out of business for saying that,” he said with a worried look on his face.
Still, most were upset the Orioles played in Cuba because they think it shows America is supporting a country that violates human rights. They talked of the recent arrests of four journalists who wrote an extensive article critical of Castro’s regime.
When the Orioles won, one domino player who spent the entire game with his back turned to the television announced loudly:
“Is this s— over with? OK, now let’s play dominoes.”