Gourriel Brothers Steal All the Bases

Gourriel Brothers Steal All the Bases / 14ymedio, Ernesto Santana
Posted on February 11, 2016

14ymedio, Ernesto Santana, Havana, 9 February 2016 — Cuban baseball is
absolutely astonished at its fall. And to make matters worse after the
disaster in the recently concluded Caribbean Series, now brothers
Yulieski and Lourdes Gourriel Jr. have joined the countless – and almost
endless – list of Cuban baseball players who seek a better future
outside their country, and in particular in the Major Leagues in the
United States.

The news spread so quickly, both inside and outside of Cuba, that even
the government media has had to acknowledge it. Of course, the two
brothers are branded as deserters, seduced by the juicy deals that are
intended to "rob Cuba of the talents it has worked so hard to develop."
An exception was the Havana Channel, which delivered the news without
the derogatory adjectives.

Apparently, the most surprised were Cuba's baseball managers in Santo
Domingo, and even more the herdsmen of State Security, who tried to
prevent the morning escape of two valuable captives, absconding to Major
League Baseball. Even the ambassador rushed to the Dominican hotel to
find out who was to blame for this double flight.

The Cuban government, absolute master of the country's baseball league,
again suffers a great loss, because the two Gourriels would certainly
have been among the players to be turned into a source of millions of
dollars when, finally, the government would have been able to make an
advantageous agreement with the Major Leagues.

The Gourriel clan maintains very close relations with the Raul branch of
the Castro clan – Yulieski, it is said, is married to the granddaughter
of the general-president, and is a very close friend of Raul's
grandson-cum-bodyguard. So, perhaps those who believe that behind this
event there could have been some kind of compromise between to the
sides, in order to position themselves vis-à-vis the great baseball to
the north, may be right.

The recent meeting with Lourdes Gourriel-the-father, with
representatives of the Major Leagues in Miami, reinforces this
hypothesis, which would explain the recent rejection by Yulieski Gurriel
of a solo contract for three million dollars to play in the Japanese
league; something seen as very suspicious by those who closely follow
Cuban baseball.

Assumptions or logical deductions aside, it is clear that the Gourriels
– especially Yulieski who is already 31 – were not willing to wait until
the bridge finally opened between the elite of US baseball and the
fiefdom of Cuban baseball, given that, like so many other novelties and
reforms, such an opening could be too long delayed, according to the
"Raul principle" of moving to solve problems, "without pause, but
without haste."

A friend who works at the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television tells
me about the hue and cry Monday morning when the news broke. "Now the
three brothers will meet in the United States, because Yunieski is
already in Canada," someone said. "This is all arranged," said another,
"because the Gourriels are not going to do something like this behind
Raul's back.

Maybe. But many of those who have been allies of, or protected by, the
Castro clan have also escaped, both in search of a more comfortable and
a more free life or, simply, looking for a new world like so many Cubans
scattered not only to the United States but all over the world.

The most natural thing would be to think that this remarkable flight
could help the owners of Cuban baseball to undertake a renewal of the
"national pastime." Sports commentators and analysts, along with the
"knights" of the Roundtable TV talk show, will criticize the players,
the coaches, the technicians and even the commissioners themselves; but
never the owners of the league, who will not give it up even when they
pretend to do so.

It is clear that they will try to change everything that can be changed*
so that everything remains the same. They have not done anything to keep
the national series from declining or to keep our teams from sinking
into the basement of world or regional baseball. They continue putting
make up on the face of this sport, putting up a Victor Mesa or Roger
Machado, setting the political police to watch the athletes so they do
not escape.

But new star players will always emerge to bring some profit, especially
if the Major Leagues finally fall into the old guerrillas' ambush.

*Translator's note: "Change everything that needs to be changed" is a
throwaway slogan from Cuban Communist Party propaganda.

Source: Gourriel Brothers Steal All the Bases / 14ymedio, Ernesto
Santana | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/gourriel-brothers-steal-all-the-bases-14ymedio-ernesto-santana/