The Cuban-American Friendship Society in 2016 presented a unique opportunity for youth and little league players from the United States to compete on the diamond against Cuban little league teams-- a once in a lifetime opportunity to engage as youth ambassadors while playing baseball. Amid the highs and lows of the 20th and 21st centuries relationship between the United States and Cuba, one constant has been the American and Cuban obsession with baseball.

Historically, Cuba has provided Major League Baseball with some of its greatest and most exciting stars. In turn, many great American players of the Golden Age of baseball also spent time playing ball and vacationing in pre-Revolutionary Cuba. In this course, participants could follow the footsteps of Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio in Havana. They learned about the effect of politics on the game. From Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez’s remarkable journey to the United States aboard a flimsy raft to President Jimmy Carter getting pitching advice from Fidel Castro at a game during a non-state visit to the island in 2002, the game of baseball has never ceased to capture the imagination of the masses in the United States and Cuba.

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Under a people-to-people exchange, youth participants had the opportunity to play against five different local youth teams in the vicinity of Havana. The program allowed participants to learn about the history of the game in Cuba and in the process create a bond with ordinary Cubans they met over their shared love of the truly “American” pastime of “beisbol.”