STANWOOD — Even before he went to Cuba for a recent series of exhibition games, Isaac Olson knew people in the island nation were crazy about baseball.
He was less sure if they were crazy about Americans.
But as it turned out, the Cubans he met were welcoming, gracious and certainly eager to engage their American guests in spirited games of what is, for both countries, a shared national pastime.
The trip to Cuba “was just an incredible opportunity to see how the Cubans performed and the way they (enjoyed) baseball,” Olson said. “It was an eye-opening experience, for sure, and it was awesome.”
Olson, a senior and top player at Stanwood High School, was part of a select team of American high school and college players that participated in the Cuba Friendship Games between Christmas and New Year’s Day. The U.S. sponsor was an organization called MVP Baseball, which selected Olson and other players at an Arizona camp late last summer.
The only catch was the $3,000 cost. But because this was such a unique opportunity, the Olson family not only found the money for Isaac to go, but another $5,000 so his father, Rich Olson, could accompany him.
The Olsons left Seattle on Christmas night and flew to Miami, where the team gathered. The next day the traveling party — it numbered more than 30 with players, coaches, other team personnel and a few parents — boarded a charter jet for the short flight across the water to Havana, Cuba’s capital.
Over the next few days the Americans played four games in the cities of Mayabeque, Pinar del Rio, Alquivar and Havana, against different teams. The opposing players were generally older — many appeared to be in their mid-20s, Isaac Olson said — and they were good. The Cuban teams won all four games, though two games were decided by one run and one game by two runs.
“We were competitive, but they had the edge,” said Olson, a pitcher who appeared in five innings of two games, giving up no runs and one hit while striking out three. “They played all out and they didn’t give up on anything. Their pitchers threw hard and they had good (hitters). Overall they were very good baseball players.”
The games were also well attended because everyone in Cuba, it seems, loves baseball. The goal for many boys is to play for the Cuban national team or, even better, to play in the major leagues where the salaries for average players are huge by Cuban standards and the money paid to stars is almost beyond belief.
But the dream is real indeed, and the proof is in the number of Cubans who have defected from the communist country to join big league ballclubs. The list is already long and continually growing, and includes stars such as Jose Abreu, Yoenis Cespedes, Yasiel Puig, Aroldis Chapman, Jose Fernandez, Yasmani Grandal, Jose Iglesias and Kendrys Morales.
During games against the visiting Americans, the Cuban players were “whooping and hollering and yelling stuff,” Olson said. “That’s kind of how they play the game. They’re always out there talking. They’re excited the whole time they’re playing.”
Likewise the fans “who wanted to win, too. They were loud. They had air horns. And they would really get on the umps.” It created an atmosphere where “we were definitely the visiting team,” he said.
But after the game the teams would line up to shake hands, followed by a swap of jerseys and other items, and then a bunch of photographs.
“When we went down I had no idea what to expect at all,” Olson said of the reception. “But the people were so nice and very genuine. The players were really nice before and after the game, and the same with the fans and the little kids.”
As special as the trip was in terms of baseball, it was equally significant as a life experience. Most American youngsters — for that matter, many Americans of all ages — have little idea how the rest of the world lives, and how pervasive poverty can be in less developed nations. In Cuba, even everyday items can be costly and difficult to acquire.
As an example, Cuban kids love baseball, but few have enough money to buy an actual baseball. So Olson and the other American players would give the children baseballs, and their faces would light up with delight and gratitude.
When the trip was over, Olson and his teammates returned home with some great memories, but also a new appreciation of their lives in America.
“When he sees the conditions and the government (the Cuban people) are still forced to live under,” Rich Olson said, “I think it just gives him a much broader appreciation — and I know it’s the same for me — of what it means to live in the U.S. and to live in freedom. But at the same time, we have love and compassion for Cubans. They adore Americans, and they’re just begging for a small piece of what we have.”
Isaac Olson agrees. It was, he said, “a very humbling experience for sure.”
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