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Baseball was introduced to Cuba in the 1860s by Cuban students returning from U.S. colleges and American sailors who ported in the country. The sport spread quickly across the island nation after its introduction, with student Nemesio Guillot receiving popular credit for the game's growth in the mid-19th century.
There are a wide variety of popular sports in Cuba. For instance, baseball, which became highly popular starting in the 1870s, when Nemesio Guillot started the first baseball club in the country. Chess is an example of an international game that gathered tremendous amounts of popularity in Cuba.
Baseball in North America is a very popular sport, mostly in the United States, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Canada, and Mexico, among others. In the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Cuba, Baseball is the most popular sport, universal love for the sport there is a cultural trait of the Spanish Caribbean, especially in ...
'When you get this kind of opportunity, it's fabulous,' says one player. 'Your world didn't end, it continues.'
A problem confronting Cuba's top athletes, however, is the lack of opportunities to compete against the best players in the world. An opportunity for competition against the world's best professional players was finally made available by the World Baseball Classic first held in March 2006 .
With Cuba’s team coming to the World Baseball Classic in Miami, politics are in play, says a former congressman.
U.S.-Cuba in Miami inflames protest by exiles; U.S. wins big. For premium support please call: 800-290-4726 more ways to reach us
Baseball in Cuba became associated with Cuban identity and nationalism. González Echevarría notes, "Baseball was a sport played in defiance of Spanish authorities, who viewed this American invention as vaguely secessionist and dangerously violent because of the use of sticks. A ban was issued in 1869, just as the Ten Years' War was starting."