Cuba

John Cougar Lunchbucket
Feb 01 2010 10:56 AM

What Canadian blogger did on vacation -- Great stuff!

[url]http://mopupduty.com/index.php/my-cuban-baseball-experience/

metirish
Feb 01 2010 12:06 PM
Re: Cuba

Great read, well worth the time.

One big difference between Cuban and American baseball is that Cuban players must play for the province in which they were born. This creates an imbalance much like the financial imbalance in Major League Baseball. Havana has a lot more people than any other province, and so it tends to havea disproportionate share of the better players.

Sports in Ireland is like this, you play for the parish you live in for Inter-County sports and the County you were born in for All-Ireland sports , amateur sports obviously.

A Boy Named Seo
Feb 01 2010 01:46 PM
Re: Cuba

That was awesome. Didn't Jerry for a while make the pitcher getting the hook wait on the mound for his replacement?

I don't remember the sidearm (fastball)/overhand (curveball) thing as much in the WBC. That has to be pretty rare. Seems pitchers at any level would get torched if they were announcing pitches like that.

Great read.

Ceetar
Feb 01 2010 01:58 PM
Re: Cuba

[quote="A Boy Named Seo":2pxwvzo0]That was awesome. Didn't Jerry for a while make the pitcher getting the hook wait on the mound for his replacement?

Great read.[/quote:2pxwvzo0]

Yeah, that was part of his "Look, I'm doing things differently" campaign. I don't think it even lasted until the end of 2008. I kinda liked it, just like I like the idea of relievers/pitchers staying in the dugout after they've exited the game instead of going into the clubhouse.(Which I think is something Putz mentioned they did in Seattle) I think they stopped it because it was creating congestion as the first guy hadn't made it into the dugout yet when Jerry already had another guy coming out of the bullpen.

MFS62
Feb 02 2010 10:01 AM
Re: Cuba

[quote="metirish"]
One big difference between Cuban and American baseball is that Cuban players must play for the province in which they were born. This creates an imbalance much like the financial imbalance in Major League Baseball. Havana has a lot more people than any other province, and so it tends to havea disproportionate share of the better players.

When the NHL was a 6 team league, there was a "territorial draft" that ensured that the Montreal and Toronto franchises would get most of the best talent. This was later discontinued. Good thing, because when the league expanded to other Canadian cities, it would have taken an effort worthy of Soloman to draw up those territorial lines to include areas of equal size and and still be fair.

Later

Edgy DC
Feb 02 2010 10:29 AM
Re: Cuba

I imagine a computer can divide a nation into regions of equal populaton in seconds.

The USFL also had territorial draft rights, allowing, I think, the New Jersey Generals first crack at players out of Ohio State.