Havana, Cuba– Cuban leader Fidel Castro confirmed that the money due his nation’s team for its silver medal in the World Baseball Classic will go to aid those he called “martyrs” of Hurricane Katrina along the U.S. Gulf Coast.
The Communist chief commented at a big welcome rally here late Tuesday for the players returning from San Diego, where they lost the Classic final to Japan 10-6.
He did not give a figure for the amount the team had earned in its impressive march to the final game, defeating on the way powerful squads from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Venezuela.
“No one knows how much our team earned,” he told a big crowd hailing the returning heroes. “But what we get, we will give to the martyrs of Katrina.”
As the Classic, organized by U.S. Major League Baseball and the players’ union, was taking shape early this year, a hitch involving the longstanding U.S. embargo against Cuba arose, threatening the island’s participation. But a formula was worked out according to which any proceeds due the Cubans from the tournament, which filled stadiums in Asia, the Caribbean and the United States for nearly three weeks, would go to humanitarian relief.
Castro said the funds would be donated “with great satisfaction, because that multiplies the moral values of our athletes.”
He also promised to invest an amount equal to those proceeds in further development of Cuba’s already potent baseball infrastructure.
