The 37-year-old athlete is being processed by US immigration authorities
14ymedio, Havana, October 16, 2024 — Cuban baseball player Raúl González is the most recent of the Island’s athletes to flee to the United States. According to sports reporter Yasel Porto, he has asked for asylum in the US, after being excluded from the national team about to compete in the Premier 12 tournament.
“Sources close to González confirm that the outstanding baseball player decided to break with Cuban baseball and look for a new country of residence,” the journalist said, adding that “Raúl surrendered on the border of Canada with the United States.” According to Porto, the 37-year-old athlete is being processed by US immigration authorities.
The player from Ciego de Ávila had a visa to enter Canada, since he played in the main league of that country with the Kitchener Panthers under the auspices of the Cuban Baseball Federation.
The Intercondados Baseball League (IBL) brings together former professional major league players and leading college athletes. It is made up of nine teams: Kitchener, Barrie, Chatham, Brantford, London, Toronto, Guelph, Welland and Hamilton.
The player from Ciego de Ávila had a visa to enter Canada, because he played in the main league of that country with the Kitchener Panthers
González has had a prominent career in Cuban baseball, where he participated in 19 National Series, with an average of .299 and 1,395 hits, as well as 244 doubles, 117 home runs and 802 runs scored. Although the infielder was one of the best players in the last campaign with his team in Canada, his performance was not enough for him to earn a place in the team that will compete for the Island in the Premier 12 tournament, in which the best baseball teams from around the world participate every four years and whose next edition will be played from November 9 to 24 in Mexico, Taiwan and Japan.
The performance of the Cuban team in the last two editions was painful. In 2015 it lost in the quarterfinals to South Korea, despite having one of the last great generations of Cuban players, with, among others, Yulieski Gurriel, Yennier Cano, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Alfredo Despaigne and Yurisbel Gracial. Four years later, the Island could not even pass the first phase and finished in third-from-last place, only above the Netherlands and Puerto Rico.
The poor results of the King of Sports in Cuba at the international level had its most recent illustration in Catalan Baseball Week
The poor results of the King of Sports in Cuba at the international level had its most recent illustration in Catalan Baseball Week, a small tournament in Spain, where the passion for baseball is almost non-existent and the Island presented itself as the big star. The Crocodiles of Matanzas, current champions of the second Elite League on the Island, suffered two defeats in three games and the early elimination of the team. The problems on the tour began before and off the field. The visas were not managed on time; the players could not train for days; they were not provided with bats or uniforms; and when the team was preparing to return to the country, the infielder Yoisnel Camejo escaped.
In January 2022, the official weekly Trabajadores counted the abandonment of 862 athletes in a decade, of which 635 were baseball players (it is estimated that there are almost 1,100 in total, so far). The exile, which also includes coaches, has exacerbated a general sports crisis on the Island, which had its worst performance in the Olympic Games in 52 years, after winning just nine medals in Paris 2024.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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