Can Baseball Help Bring US And Cuba Together?

FREDERIC J. FROMMER

WASHINGTON (AP) — "Pingpong diplomacy" thawed relations between the United States and China in 1971. Can "baseball diplomacy" help do the same for the U.S. and Cuba?

Americans ranging from 12-year-old ballplayers to softballing senior citizens are visiting the communist island to engage in their own kind of field work, and there's talk of another trip by a major league team.

These bat-and-ball initiatives come as the Obama administration takes steps toward improving relations with the Cold War rival, such as loosening financial and travel restrictions on Americans with relatives on the island.

"I think it would be good," said former World Series MVP Livan Hernandez, who defected from Cuba in the 1990s. "I want to come back to my own country. I miss my family, I miss my friends. I think it's time to do something like that."

Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos, who staged exhibition games with the Cuban national team in Havana and Baltimore a decade ago, told The Associated Press that he hopes to so again next spring. Two groups of baseball youngsters from Florida are planning to visit next year as well.