[Marxism] Fidel Castro on Cuba's Olympics squad: "The Harassed Team"

[Walter Lippmann]

Reflections by Comrade Fidel

The Harassed Team

The Olympics will very soon begin in China. Some days ago I wrote
about our baseball team. I said that our athletes were put through a
very hard test and that if something went wrong they were not the
ones who deserved the harshest criticisms. I recognized their quality
and patriotism. They felt depressed after the criticisms that came
from Cuba.

Afterwards I learned that they were all in good spirits. They had
learned how to eat the spicy Korean food with chopsticks, the way it
is done in eastern Asia. On July 26 they sent a vibrant patriotic
message. They will no doubt face with honor that difficult test.

But, will they be on an equal footing with regards to the teams of
other rich powers, such as the United States and Japan, which will be
competing against Cuba?

The first has almost thirty times as much inhabitants as Cuba; the
second, at least eleven times as much. Neither of them is under any
economic blockade and both are extremely wealthy. No one is robbing
or plundering them of their athletes.

Japan has ordered its professional athletes to join the Olympic team,
and they will have to; so has been the will of their masters. That
has nothing to do with the athletes that have been turned into
merchandise.

On the eve of the Olympics, the United States, with its mercenary
money, bought Alexei Ramírez, who had been the leading home runner of
the National Baseball series in our country in 2007. The coach of the
team that bought him has boasted that he does not know in what base
he should place Ramírez, because he had been well trained in all of
them. It is disgusting to read about the details of the commercial
arrangements surrounding the case, which have been disseminated by
the cables, regarding the distribution of the money. Formerly, they
had bought the most promising pitcher from the province of Pinar del
Rio, José Ariel Contreras, thus creating uncertainty and mistrust.

In Edmonton, Canada, just before the beginning of a match with 
the team of the host country at the 23rd World Youth Baseball
Championship, we learned that the southpaw Noel Argüelles, who would
for sure be the starting pitcher of the game, and the shortstop José
Antonio Iglesias, with a batting average above 500, were missing.

The courageous youth league pitcher from Pinar del Río, Julio Alfredo
Martínez Wong, climbed the mound. He had already pitched for eight
innings in a row and had one more out to make; there were men on the
bases and he looked exhausted. In the bullpen, Joan Socarrás Maya 
was warming up hard; he was instructed to be ready to take action.
Esteban Lombillo, the energetic and able coach of Cuba’s youth team
had already been to the box. Julio Alfredo, exploding with dignity,
demanded that he be allowed to continue pitching: “I will finish this
game!” –he exclaimed. Lombillo, who was also upset about the
despicable betrayal, knew what he meant and trusted him. Julio
Alfredo put his heart and soul into the game. He pitched for the last
out of the eighth inning. In the ninth he retired the batters by
three consecutive strikeouts and beat the Canadian team by one run.

The substitute shortstop, Yandy Díaz, played wonderfully and
connected for a double that was decisive for Cuba’s victory.

Edmonton has become a dumping ground. The Cuban athletes were 
badly taken care of. That city has the privilege of hosting that
championship every year. We should analyze whether it is worth
attending that tournament. Not even a single representative of the
Cuban press had been sent to cover the event. All we know we have
learned through unofficially.

The proud Cuban athletes of the Olympic baseball team, who have been
wonderfully taken care of by their Korean hosts and will be even
better taken care of in China, will have to compete under the
unfavorable circumstances that I explained before. Whatever the
results, they know that what really matters for us are the honor 
and the courage with which they struggle.

But the imperialist aggression is not only seen in baseball. 
Some months ago, part of our male soccer team let itself be drawn 
into an act of betrayal inside the United States, which limited Cuba's
prospects in that sport in the international arena. A female Olympic
judo athlete, almost a sure gold medalist, was bribed. Buying our
athletes they deprived us from five sure gold medals in Olympic
boxing. It is like a call to slaughter against Cuba to steal brains,
muscles and bones.

Why are the rich and powerful afraid of our small and blockaded
island?

Leinier Domínguez struggles in Switzerland at one of the most
important international chess tournaments.

At the Olympics, due to begin on August 8, our athletes in different
sports will struggle to win the gold with more dignity than ever, and
our people will enjoy their gold medals as they never have. Then the
fanatics will remember the traitors.


Fidel Castro Ruz
July 31, 2008
12:32 p.m.

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WALTER LIPPMANN
Los Angeles, California
Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
"Cuba - Un Paraíso bajo el bloqueo"
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