Baseball Diplomacy, Baseball Deployment: the National

BASEBALL DIPLOMACY, BASEBALL DEPLOYMENT: THE NATIONAL PASTIME IN U.S.-CUBA RELATIONS by JUSTIN W. R. TURNER HOWARD JONES, COMMITTEE CHAIR STEVEN BUNKER LAWRENCE CLAYTON LISA LINDQUIST-DORR RICHARD MEGRAW A DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History in the Graduate School of The University of Alabama TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA 2012 Copyright Justin W. R. Turner 2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT The game of baseball, a shared cultural affinity linking Cuba and the United States, has played a significant part in the relationship between those nations. Having arrived in Cuba as a symbol of growing American influence during the late nineteenth century, baseball would come to reflect the political and economic connections that developed into the 1900s. By the middle of the twentieth century, a significant baseball exchange saw talented Cuban players channeled into Major League Baseball, and American professionals compete in Cuba’s Winter League. The 1959 Cuban Revolution permanently changed this relationship. Baseball’s politicization as a symbol of the Revolution, coupled with political antagonism, an economic embargo, and an end to diplomatic ties between the Washington and Havana governments largely destroyed the U.S.-Cuba baseball exchange. By the end of the 1960s, Cuban and American baseball interactions were limited to a few international amateur competitions, and political hardball nearly ended some of these. During the 1970s, Cold War détente and the success of Ping Pong Diplomacy with China sparked American efforts to use baseball’s common ground as a basis for improving U.S.-Cuba relations. Baseball diplomacy, as the idea came to be called, was designed to be a means toward coexistence and normalization with the Castro government. Ultimately, despite a taking few swings during that decade, baseball diplomacy—unable to surmount the obstacles, either within politics or within professional baseball—failed to produce any actual games between Cuban and Major League Baseball teams. ii As Cold War détente evaporated into the 1980s, baseball’s role in the U.S.-Cuba political relationship changed. Efforts to boost Cuban exposure to Major League Baseball developed as part of a general policy to use American culture and influence to erode Communism. This practice of deploying baseball as a political weapon continued into the 1990s. Unlike earlier efforts at baseball diplomacy, which were designed to improve U.S.-Cuba relations, baseball deployment aimed to provoke a democratic regime change in Cuba. This dissertation examines how politics have complicated U.S.-Cuba baseball exchanges, and traces the sport’s contradictory use through baseball diplomacy and baseball deployment. iii DEDICATION For my family… iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A number of people contributed directly and indirectly to this dissertation and to my success at the University of Alabama. In acknowledging these contributions, I want to express my sincere gratitude to everyone who played a part in my experiences as a graduate student. First, my thanks to Dr. Howard Jones for advising my project and for sharing his wisdom, insight, experience, expertise, and—not least—patience. I have been honored to be your student. I would also like to thank the members of my dissertation committee: Dr. Steven Bunker, Dr. Lawrence Clayton, Dr. Lisa Lindquist-Dorr, and Dr. Richard Megraw. The suggestions that you provided, the flexibility that you showed, and the time that you gave are much appreciated. To the outstanding faculty and staff in the University of Alabama History Department: thank you for all that you have done for me. Thank you, as well, to my friends and colleagues in Tuscaloosa for making my time there so enjoyable. I want to acknowledge the many librarians and archivists who provided assistance with research. My sincere thanks to the staff at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, the Gerald R. Ford Library, the Jimmy Carter Library, the William Jefferson Clinton Library, the National Archives, the Library of Congress, and the New York Public Library. Finally, I want to thank my family, to whom this dissertation is dedicated. To Mom and Dad, who did everything right as parents. All that I have today came from you. Thank you for never failing to show me the correct way. To my older brother, who has always looked out for me, cleared the path ahead, and given me a shining example to emulate. To my younger sister, for giving me someone to look out for and a reason for setting my own example. To my wife v Brooke, who never wavered through this lengthy process and whose love and support kept me going. This dissertation is a reality because of you all. I can never thank you enough. vi CONTENTS ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………….ii DEDICATION…………………………………………………………………….iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………..v INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………1 CHAPTER ONE – Stitches that Bind: Political and Cultural Linkages Prior to the Cuban Revolution……………………………….………...10 CHAPTER TWO – Toiling in the Minors: Cuba’s ‘50s Farm Teams and the Path to Revolution………………………….……………………………37 CHAPTER THREE – Cut Fastballs: Cancelations, Relocations, Provocations and Politicization during the 1960s……………………………….74 CHAPTER FOUR – ‘70s Innings Stretches: Cold War Détente and the Origins of Baseball Diplomacy, Part One…………………….…..……..….116 CHAPTER FIVE – ‘70s Innings Stretches: Cold War Détente and the Origins of Baseball Diplomacy, Part Two……..……………………………150 CHAPTER SIX – Rain Delays: The 1980s and a Return to the Cold War……………….……………………………...……….……………182 CHAPTER SEVEN – Hit-and-run: Baseball Deployment and the 1990s, Part One…………………………………………………………...…220 CHAPTER EIGHT – Hit-and-run: Baseball Deployment and the 1990s, Part Two…………………………………………….……………….252 EPILOGUE…………………………………………………………………...….281 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………….…285 vii INTRODUCTION Cuba has always occupied a significant place in American foreign policy. From the early history of the United States, Cuba served as a point of legal trade and illegal smuggling for the nearby colonies in British North America. In the early decades after American independence, U.S. presidents and policymakers, looking to defend their young republic against European aggression, kept a watchful eye on Cuba—then a Spanish colony. The most notable statement of American foreign policy during this time, the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, though delivered as a broad policy against European colonization in the hemisphere, was chiefly geared toward keeping Great Britain from acquiring Cuba.1 American interest in acquiring this Caribbean neighbor as an important strategic point also derived from this era. Initially, both sides had a mutual interest in annexation. Cuban sugar planters, who depended on slavery and feared for that institution’s future amidst declining Spanish power, began seeking to join the United States, which maintained a similar plantation labor system in its southern states. Though slavery’s abolition in the 1860s in the United States nullified this consideration, increasing American economic ties during the latter nineteenth century perpetuated a relationship characterized by U.S. dominance and Cuban subservience. The United States’ role in Cuban independence, beginning in 1898, and the ensuing 1903 Platt Amendment, cemented this relationship for first half of the twentieth century. 2 1 Eric Williams, From Columbus to Castro: The History of the Caribbean, 1492-1969 (New York: Harper & Row, 1970), 411. 2 Rex A. Hudson, ed., Cuba: A Country Study , Fourth Edition (Washington, Government Printing Office, 2002), 20. 1 In the late 1950s, the Cuban Revolution sought to destroy this power dynamic. Being a quasi-colony to the United States generated economic frustration and political mismanagement, and enabled Fidel Castro’s January 1959 ascension to power. Under Castro, Cuba took steps to free itself of American influence, while simultaneously transforming the U.S-Cuba relationship from one of cooperative dependence to one of antagonism. As post-Revolutionary economic policies damaged American-owned enterprises, Castro committed the ultimate sin, from the American perspective, by strengthening Cuba’s relationship with the Soviet Union. As a result, Cuba-U.S. ties became a casualty of the Cold War. Today, Cuba is one of the United States’ last remaining Cold War foes. In the two decades since the breakdown of the Eastern Bloc, the reunification of East and West Germany, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union ending the Cold War, both Russia and China have developed into significant trading partners, if uneasy American political allies. Cuba, along with Bhutan, Iran, and North Korea, make up the four nations worldwide that do not have diplomatic relations with the United States, and of those four, Cuba is the only nation to which the United States government restricts travel. 3 Washington’s lingering hostility toward Cuba hinges on the Castro regime’s perpetuation. Though Fidel ceded power to his brother Raúl in 2008, the fact that a Castro remains in charge of Cuba, combined with resistance from the powerful Cuban exile political lobby in the United States, diminishes any hope of reconciliation in the near future. Since the 1960s, with a few limited exceptions, the United States has focused its Cuban policy toward regime change. Though the measures employed for this purpose have varied in scope—the most 3 “Cuba Country Specific Information,” United States Department of

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