Cuba’s Villa Clara Loses Two Pitchers

Cuba's Villa Clara Loses Two Pitchers
July 6, 2014

HAVANA TIMES — Two pitchers from Villa Clara were suspended indefinitely
from Cuban baseball after an attempt to escape the island two weeks
earlier, states the local Vanguardia newspaper.

Lefty Yasmany Hernandez and righty Diosdany Castillo were most likely
hoping to reach another country and then begin the process of trying to
get signed by a US Major League Baseball team, like dozens of Cuban
players in recent years.

Both pitchers were on Villa Clara's 2012-2013 league championship team.

Under the US embargo on Cuba, the island's players, with residence in
Cuba, cannot sign a contract with a MLB team. Instead, they must risk
leaving Cuba illegally, which often implies risking their lives at the
hands of people smugglers who charge hefty fees, to get them to Haiti,
Honduras, the Dominican Republic or Mexico, among other countries.

Villa Clara provincial baseball commissioner Jorge Luis Carvajal told
Vanguardia that the suspension occured after a "serious indiscipline".
It was the newspaper that made it clear that such a wording means
getting caught in an illegal escape attempt.

In cases like this, in baseball and other sports, the athletes, having
their careers ended by the Cuban authorities, see their only alternative
to continue trying the illegal exists until they are successful.

Source: Cuba's Villa Clara Loses Two Pitchers - Havana Times.org -
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=104687