A Photo through the Net
It was March 2016, and the whole world centered its attention on Cuba and the visit of US President Barack Obama. Media in Cuba wouldn’t talk about anything else, although my attention in particular shifted to something else that was going to be part of his presence in the country’s capital: a friendly game between Cuba and an MLB team.
The historic moment had only happened once since the Castro Revolution took over in 1959 and professional baseball was banned after the 1959-1960 Winter League. The Baltimore Orioles visited Cuba in March 1999, in what seemed to be an act of good faith. By then, a rather energetic Fidel Castro was in attendance, and his keen eye kept the Cuban National Team as an almost unbeatable machine, while also keeping a tight grip on baseball players.
People in Havana’s Estadio Lationamericano display the Cuban flag in the stands.|Credit: Reynaldo Cruz Diaz
But it was 2016. A lot was changing for Cuba, or so we thought, and the US president was going to come to the island nation. With a discourse that aimed to end the isolation between two long-time adversaries, while always advocating for change and democracy, Barack Obama became admired by everyday Cubans. Yet, in the high spheres of government, mainly when it came to the oligarchs who controlled and owned everything, there was fear.
What did he actually want? Why was he so willing to come to Cuba and talk to the people? Why the focus on the youth and the entrepreneurs?
The answers were clear: Barack Obama had realized that the long-standing sanctions on Cuba had brought no change for the Cuban people, and had helped cement the Castro dynasty’s position of power. Using the powerful enemy as an excuse for every problem in the country had been a very effective measure. With very little to no access to internet or to unbiased information, the vast majority of the people of Cuba believed everything that was fed to them hand-to-mouth by the government-controlled stream media.
So, the US president’s chess move was one aimed at giving Cubans some of those freedoms (both of information and financial) so they could start opening their eyes. Without firing a single bullet, or using any military deployment, Barack Obama thus started an invasion of Cuba that would last almost four years and would reshape the perception Cubans had on Americans forever.
And of course, the masterful idea of actually brining a Major League Baseball team for a friendly game in Havana, with Obama himself attending the event, was one move that many Cubans—baseball fans by nature—would appreciate. The events surrounding the baseball game in question had a lot of particulars. All-time greats like Joe Torre, Derek Jeter and Dave Winfield were in attendance. Cuban ex pats Luis Tiant Jr. and José Cardenal were also going to be there. Rachel Robinson—Jackie Robinson’s wife— was also making the trip to La Habana, in very symbolic fashion, as Jackie’s first spring training as the member of the Brooklyn Dodgers was precisely in Cuba.
Dayron Varona, a Cuban-born non-roster invitee to the Rays’ spring camp was penciled by manager Kevin Cash to lead off the game against his former nation.|Credit: Reynaldo Cruz Diaz
The Rays were also bringing a card up their sleeve: Dayron Varona, a Cuban defector, was part of the team as a non-roster invitee for Spring Training, and he was also penciled as the lead-off man for the game against Cuba. Many of Cuba’s players were friends with him, as some had played with or against him in the Cuban National Series.
However, this was not a regular baseball game: It was a diplomatic event, aimed at thawing the long-standing Cold War philosophy that had marked the relations of two long-time adversaries. And of course, the presence of a sitting US head of state, for the first time since Calvin Coolidge did it in 1928, was going to make things a lot different from a regular baseball game.
A lot was happening in Cuba at the time. The presence of Obama and the Rays were just two of many US-Cuba interactions that took place around those years. Conan O’Brien had aired a series of short episodes during a visit to Cuba. US Secretary of State John Kerry had come to Havana to reopen the US Embassy. An entourage of Major League Baseball (including stars from Cuban and foreign origins) had traveled to Cuba a few months after that. The eight installment of the saga The Fast and the Furious would also film in Cuba the month after the presidential visit. Chanel would host a fashion show in Havana shortly after that. The icing on the cake was provided by The Rolling Stones, who were scheduled to play the day after Air Force One left Cuba.
It was a time of total craziness.
“Fans” in Cuba’s Estadio Lationamericano hold their cell phones and cameras when Barack Obama emerge in the ballpark. Even though they had been instructed not to show sympathy for the foreign head of state, their curiosity overcame them.|Credit: Reynaldo Cruz Diaz
While many focused their attention on the president, I had mine on the Rays. I had seen with despair how a game had been played in 1999 by the Baltimore Orioles with no presence of actual baseball fans in the stands. I was in high school then, so it had been virtually impossible for me to attend. Yet, I was not going to miss this one. Using the access I had gained from Universo Béisbol’s credibility, and—once again—having my friend Kathy Willens vouching for me, I managed to secure a media credential for the whole MLB presence in Cuba.
I have saved every single MLB-issued media credential. This was the first I ever had.|Credit: Reynaldo Cruz Diaz
With the access to the President very limited, I knew that my calling was the game—which, by the way, involved A LOT of security. Barack Obama was, to me, purely incidental. And of course, if the Castro regime had done it with the 1999 Baltimore Orioles game, they would do it again: the vast majority of those in attendance (sauf some actual baseball players who were near the area where Obama and Castro were going to be sitting) had NO idea about baseball.
Luis Tiant Jr. (left) and Pedro Luis Lazo throw a joint ceremonial first pitch before the game in Havana.|Credit: Reynaldo Cruz Diaz
The uncomfortable environment of how the Cuban ran its politics over everything they did and organized was peaked by three things: 1. The “spontaneous” chanting of ‘Raul! Raul! Raul!’ that “erupted” when the younger Castro made himself present. 2. The way the choir singing both The Star Spangled Banner and El Himno de Bayamo sounded better with the American one because people in the stands had been instructed to sing so they sounded louder. 3. The way the announcers raved about Pedro Luis Lazo (a legend in Cuban Baseball National Series) while not bringing any fanfare to Luis Tiant Jr., an icon himself in Major League Baseball, who also happened to be Cuban, but part of the exile.
As much as these things bothered me as a baseball person, I had a job to do, and an experience to live. I had NEVER been in a game that included major leaguers, so I was ecstatic about it. I wasn’t even as bothered by the fact that people did not cheer for Dayron Varona when he stepped to the plate, and that the public announcement did not make any effort to remark that he was Cuban-born. My naïveté certainly made me think it was “for the greater good”, but it wasn’t.
Yet, it was impossible to ignore the fact that the President of the United States was in attendance. So, when I was given the chance, I approached the area around home plate to have a closer look and take a closer photo.
Barack Obama waves for the cameras. This is the closest I was to the US President that day.|Credit: Reynaldo Cruz Diaz
Nevertheless, the net did its damage: painted in a scandalous blue color and having much thicker threading than other nets I had encountered, it made it nearly impossible to focus and get a better picture. Plus, I was behind other photographers from US media, and my MLB credential demanded that I was “courteous”. So, I ended up walking back to the Tampa Bay Rays’ dugout on the third-base side in slight disappointment.
Barack Obama shakes hands with Rays’ ace Chris Archer prior to the Rays game in Havana.|Credit: Reynaldo Cruz Diaz
I would have a chance, though. When the Rays players came in to shake hands with Barack Obama, I followed with my lens. The moment in which he smiles while shaking Chris Archer’s hand was frozen in my camera forever. As he was surrounded by people, the composition of the photo is purely disastrous, but I managed to capture that moment, and it is a picture I have treasured since—and printed in large format more than once.
As the game ensued, Danny Field, from MLB Productions, offered me to use a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens with a 2x extender for the game. But I would not get another clear shot of Barack Obama, except for the moment in which he was being interviewed by Doug Glanville and Eduardo Pérez.
He would leave before the game was over, and I stayed with the Rays and US media in the dugout. The game would end with a Rays’ win 4-1, and a jersey exchange between Cuban and MLB players.
Maybe a different scenario would have allowed me to capture a better photo of Barack Obama. However, this is the one I had, and I am happy I could be part of that moment.
