EVEN WHEN! January left and the Cuban ball CONTINUED without a decision

By Yasel Porto

There are many bad decisions made or not taken within Cuban baseball that generate controversy and discomfort, which undoubtedly also have a negative impact for different reasons of unquestionable logic.

The theme of the selection/appointment of the new President of the Cuban Baseball Federation is for me like the story of the good pipe that I promise to write about for the last time. And it is that time continues to pass and the position that became vacant after the death of Higinio Vélez last May seems to have to continue like this, because officially, despite the many announcements made, no decision has been made in this regard or at least not has been made public.

Some time ago I stopped believing in what people close to the organization told me in private, and I also lost the credibility of the deadlines suggested in public by some of the island’s baseball leadership.

But beyond the fact that I do not swallow any date or tentative deadline to finish making official something that should have been done long before the death of the ex-manager from Santiago, there is my criticism once again for the lack of respect towards Cuban baseball and its public.

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Cuba attended the Florida Pre-Olympic without a Federation President. He told himself that Higinio was very recent and he hadn’t had time to choose one. Then the COVID situation worsened and the argument was based on the country’s priority in confronting the pandemic.

Summer is gone and the virus is almost extinct if we take the figures that were released in the press, and not even with the arrival of the winter leagues with the important movement that this represents in terms of hiring did the happy cargo will find name.

They told me that before October left, because they announced the same thing to the candidates. So if November, later than December and then when it was learned that Ricardo Fraccari (President of the world organization) would travel to Cuba, many of us thought that he had waited all that time because that would be the right environment to finish making Higinio’s successor official. Velez.

The Italian came and went and everything remained the same. Not even among the many issues that transpired on his part did he question the unprecedented delay with this appointment. It is as if Cuban baseball had no need for that, as if it were really an example to others that the presidency of a national federation was invented for fun, because ultimately several vice presidents can distribute the functions. Even though some of them have even been deposed from the position of national commissioner of baseball.

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With the presence of Fraccari, the only thing that was said about the individual was that it was most likely that this situation would be defined in January.. On the last day of the month a press conference was held in which some thought that what was promised would finally be fulfilled, but…. for pleasure.

There, the new contracts were announced and certain policies regarding hiring were ratified. But otherwise as usual, nothing at all.

I have asked the same ones that I usually rely on not to write or speak without base and the answer does not change. We don’t know why that has taken so long when the process for voting among the candidates had been done for a long time, and the only thing missing was approval from above, beyond the Cuban Olympic Committee and INDER.

All this totally unnecessary and absurd delay serves to leave some unquestionable teachings in my view, although some are reluctant to accept them.

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1- That Higinio was going to be replaced due to poor results and his level of unpopularity was a fallacy.
2- The position of President of the FCB is much more important for the authorities of the Island than people think.
3- Cuban baseball and Cuban baseball players do not have due respect from those who make decisions for leaving them without an official President for all international affairs that are more important every day.
4- The candidates and the public are not respected with the false promises of deadlines to announce the final decision.
5- The FCB is not a Non-Governmental Organisation.

After this I have nothing more to say on the subject from this moment. I just don’t give more. The day someone ends up appointing or ratifying whoever it is and then reports at a conference or comes out on Jit as one of those sober notes without any nuance, then I will give my opinion on the chosen one. That is if I know him, because I am not surprised that at this point they appear for a change with a name unrelated to the ball.

And then we want agreement with MLB. If this is the case with something as simple as electing the baseball federation months ago, I would not want to see every time that important decisions had to be made within the agreement itself due to the complexity of the chain of command. And notice that I spoke in the first person plural because I include myself in the group of those of us who prefer formal agreements to the current process that is so rough, illegal and even dangerous that athletes go through to reach the best baseball in the world.

But with the points that I made before and others that are related to the subject, there is no way that things are done as the majority believes is correct. It is simply that the prejudices, the bureaucracy, the opportunism and the incapacity of many continue to be the worst enemies of Cuban baseball and not those that we point out as badly done.

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Although I am almost never categorical in my criteria, I say that there is no argument for so much delay in something so basic. Everything that is wanted to be said or covered up is pure justification for disrespect, an even more criticizable attitude because many times they not only defend themselves with absurdities but, as usual, offend and even try to kill the messenger, or above all, they order them to do so.

That is why no progress is made, because they focus on getting upset and shooting at the messengers of the problem, without basis, out of pure offense, without fully understanding that as long as they do not solve those real problems, they will have more messengers to attack every day. And meanwhile, the real enemy continues advancing and destroying our ball little by little…