Cuban baseball will be back April 30th after the Coronavirus shutdown well before Major League Baseball will consider coming back (AP file photo)

Baseball in Cuba could start before US

That’s Amaury News and Commentary

By Amaury Pi-González

According to the Havana Times. All official sports events have been canceled in Cuba until April 30th at least, in response to the global Coronavirus pandemic. That includes baseball,the one sport that people have been playing almost as long as the United States. The population of the largest island in the Caribbean is approximately 11.5 million and as of today Cuba’s total of 1,389 Covid-19 cases and 58 dead.

It would be easy to start baseball in Cuba,because everything is controlled by their government. There are no complications like here in the US with MLB the MLB Players Union,the 50 different States/politics open or not open for business and of course a much smaller country..

Here is easily explained:

1-Owners of teams. None. The Cuban communist government owns baseball and all other sports.

2-Players. Baseball players get paid by the government and the stars make around equivalent of $2,000 per year.

3-Fans/Games. Cubans pay subsidized prices of just a few centavos

4-Media. Private ownership of broadcast media(radio,TV,print is prohibited)and the government owns all mainstream media outlets *(below)

5-Largest most famous Stadium: Estadio Latinoamericano, Havana, 55,000 capacity,build in 1946.

*Cubans were allowed to have cell phones in 2010,however the Internet is very limited and strongly censored.