By SwingCompleto / contacto@swingcompleto.com
For a few weeks the habanero slugger Lisban Correa He decided to leave his official link with the Cuban Baseball Federation and thus begin an independent path within professional baseball and incidentally establish residence in Mexico.
This has been a very particular year for “Billy”, because on the one hand he had in his favor his spectacular debut with the Cuba team during the pre-Olympic tournament in Florida after that homerun against Venezuela. Despite his 34 years, the force hitting of the former receiver and now first baseman with Industriales in the National Series, opened a space for him within the team led by Armando Ferrer from Matanzas.
In this same 2021 there was another moment that seemed to definitively direct him into the extra-border ball after being hired in the Mexican Summer League. However, Correa could not get close to the offensive performance that he captured in the Cuban winter season and not even going through several Mexican clubs could take advantage of it well and long before the end of the regular season he was left without work.
Accompanied by his wife, he decided to settle for a time in that country while still looking for other hiring opportunities, either in Mexico itself or in other American leagues and even in Europe and Asia. For that endeavor he had already determined to act on his own, becoming a totally independent entity from the baseball Federation of his country of origin and residence.
This decision provoked the rejection of the Cuban authorities, especially the Sports Directorate of Havana, which has neither been very open nor very quick when it comes to dealing with athletes residing abroad.
Right now Correa is interested in playing with Industriales in the upcoming baseball campaign, scheduled to begin sometime next year, but capital officials are the ones who must now authorize whether the Arroyo Naranjo natural slugger is eligible for manager Guillermo Carmona.
Precisely his wife, who has been a supporter of Lisbán in many sports and extra-sports aspects, is in Havana trying to convince the decision makers that as has happened with other players (Yadir Drake-MTZ or Jorge Hernández-CFG) he can join Industriales , although his participation as a professional outside of Cuba is completely independent.
A very similar case was that of the pitcher Maykel Taylor, who in any case was on the verge of not participating with the Lions due to the excessive delay of his repatriation process.
Although the National Baseball Directorate and the National Federation have the last word, in many of these cases they have allowed the provincial territories to act at their will as long as they do not violate the regulations of the series, which has been softened enough in the end times for a matter of need. At the moment, only players who have left a delegation remain forbidden, a category that Correa does not enter due to the fact that despite breaking with the FCB he had already been after being unemployed within the agreement in which Cuba already received its percent.
The best that the INDER of Havana can do is make its policies and mechanisms more flexible with the players who leave the country and decide to carve out their own path on international circuits. Otherwise, that excess of pride and caprice will only contribute to the team Industrial That it comes out in the next season only depends on a miracle even to qualify for the playoffs if one takes into account that even with Correa on the payroll, the exaggerated renewal carried out by the leadership of the squad and the sport in the territory, more the emigration of some talents, reduces the chances of success, at least in the forecasts of the top winners of Cuban baseball.