But that's all about politics. And the truth of the matter is, a lot of very fine players throughout big league history have been born in Cuba; no less than 150, in fact, still the fifth most of any country in the world outside the USA, and half again more than the larger and friendlier Mexico, the most recent country visited for Baseball's Hall of Names.
But Cuba? Sure, how would you like a team that looks like this? ...
The Havana Knights
** indicates Hall of Famer
* indicates All-Star
MGR: Carlos Tosca (191-191)
Lineup
C Paul Casanova* ('67 All-Star; .225 in 10 years)
1B Rafael Palmeiro* (.288, 569 homers in 20 years)
2B Cookie Rojas* (five-time All-Star; .263 in 16 seasons)
SS Bert Campaneris* (six-time All-Star; 649 SB)
3B Tony Perez** (seven-time All-Star; .279, 379 homers in 23 years)
LF Jose Cardenal (.275, 138 homers)
CF Minnie Minoso* (.298 in 17 seasons)
RF Jose Canseco* (six-time All-Star; '88 AL MVP; 462 homers)
DH Tony Oliva* (.304, 220 homers in 15 seasons)
Bench
C Eli Marrero (C/OF/1B, .245 through 2005)
IF Zoilo Versalles* (1965 AL MVP)
IF Leo Cardenas* (five-time All-Star)
OF Jose Tartabull (.261 in nine seasons)
OF Tony Gonzalez (.286, 103 homers, 1960-71)
UTIL Tony Taylor* (ll but C; .261, 234 SB in 19 years)
Rotation
RHSP Luis Tiant* (229-172)
RHSP Camilo Pascual* (174-170)
RHSP Dolf Luque (194-179)
LHSP Mike Cuellar* (185-130)
RHSP Jose Contreras (35-18 through 2005)
Bullpen
CL Danys Baez* (102 saves through 2005)
SET Pedro Ramos* (117-160, 55 saves)
SET Diego Segui (92-111, 72 saves)
RP Livan Hernandez* (110-104 through 2005)
RP Orlando Hernandez (70-49 through 2005)
Notes from the Coastline ... Tosca is the second-winningest of six Cuban-born big league managers, behind only Preston Gomez, and the only one of those six not on the red side of .500 for his career ... Luque was 27-8 for the 1922 Reds, but his entire career predated the All-Star Game ... Jose Contreras' blazing 8-0 start for the White Sox in 2006 has his career mark at 43-18 and seems likely to put an end to his dearth of All-Star appearances ...
RHRP Luis "Witto" Aloma rang up a career 18-3 mark with 15 saves for the 1950-53 White Sox ... Then in 1954, Sandy Consuegra tossed together a 16-3 season for those same Sox, the highlight of his 51-32 career ... RHSP Rolando Arrojo was the first Devil Ray All-Star ... RHRP Mike Fornieles had 63 wins and 55 saves in 12 seasons, while if this team needs a LOOGY, LHRP Tony Fossas also pitched for 12 years (it just seems like it was 25) ... RHS/RP Orlando Pena had 56 wins and 40 saves in 14 years ... Whatever happened with Ariel Prieto, anyway? The righty led all Cubans in career hype, but won just 15 games in six partial seasons ... Oscar Zamora had back-to-back 10-save seasons for the 1974-75 Cubs, but in '76 some guy named Sutter showed up ..
Tony Perez was the Reds starting third baseman from 1967-71 until Lee May was sent to Houston in the Joe Morgan trade ... Four players on this roster -- Tartabull, Segui, Perez and Casanova -- had sons who played big league ball, though again for political reasons, none of those sons were also born in Cuba ... The best player to not make the team? Hard to say, though the glut of middle infielders eliminated both Tito Fuentes (.268 in 13 years, though not much with the glove) and the differently-talented three-time Gold Glove winner, Rey Ordonez ... Eight of the nine players in the starting lineup made at least one All-Star team, while the one who didn't, Jose Cardenal, played well enough to be selected on several occasions ...
So ... drop this team into the current big league schedule and it wins, what, 115 games?
