Cuban Friday: Summit of the Americas, WAQI, Felix Perez and Luis Tiant

Cuba is the focus of the upcoming Summit of the Americas, and the focus of today's post.

Earlier this week, United States president Barack Obama removed some restrictions on American money and goods flowing toward Cuba. Today, the head of the Organization of American States said he will ask its members to readmit Cuba after isolating the country from talks over the past 47 years.

This dovetails nicely with something I wanted to mention here. Native Cubans recently lost their only ability to hear MLB games on the radio when Florida Marlins broadcasts on WQBA 1140 AM in Miami (with Cuban broadcasters Felo Ramirez and Luis Yiki Quintana) changed over to WAQI 710 AM prior to this season. This effectively eliminated any chance for native Cubans to keep track of MLB baseball. This is all being reported to me by my contacts there—I can't actually find a press release announcing this change, although WAQI 710 is now the official Spanish-language home of the Florida Marlins. Check out this forum; it seems the bandwidth is bigger now under WAQI.

So...what gives? It seems like they should be hearing it better than they were. Perhaps it's getting jammed? Anyone?

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Also in the news, Jorge Arangure Jr. of ESPN reports that talks have broken down between the New York Yankees and exiled Cuban prospect Felix Perez. It's on ESPN Insider so I won't bother linking (it requires a subscription) but it looks like Perez is being detained with visa trouble in the Dominican Republic, and the Yanks have some questions about Perez' actual age. According to Arangure, Cubans aren't subject to the same age investigations as other Latin American prospects, so he isn't likely to face the one-year mandatory suspension for prospects who lie about their age. He quotes one international scouting director on Perez:

"He had a well-built mature body with some stiffness. I never saw the speed he supposedly has, and his swing was a bit stiff. I just did not see a carrying tool or ability in the range they were talking about."

Sounds like there's at least one scout out there who hasn't given up the romantic notion that big-league ballplayers need to sell jeans...

Perez is (for now) twenty years old and comes from the Isla de Juventud (Island of Youth). He's a left-handed hitting centerfielder who Baseball America calls "a raw talent." In two seasons in the Nacional Series he hit only .271.

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Finally, the Boston Globe ran a moving piece on former big-league pitcher Luis Tiant. Tiant, a three-time All-Star and winner of 229 games, journeys home in a forthcoming documentary titled, The Lost Son of Havana, opening Apr. 23 at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. If anyone goes, post a review here...