RKS Film: “The Last Out”: Cuban Fodder for Major League Baseball?

“The Last Out” is a PBS POV documentary which you can stream free (assuming you are not geoblocked) until 2November22 at pbs.org and the PBS Video app.

It chronicles the trials and tribulations of three Cuban baseball players fleeing the poverty and lack of baseball opportunities to make their career, hopefully, in American professional baseball (MLB). You’ll be introduced these young men, “Happy” Oliveros, Carlos Gonzáles and Victor Baró in Costa Rica training to be noticed by MLB scouts. It is a Los Angeles based agent Gus Dominguez footing the cost hoping his prospects will be signed to a contract by an MLB team and if so he’ll collect 20% of the player’s signing bonus. Hundreds of Cuban wannabe baseball players have left Cuba in the past 5 years to make it in the MLB but only 6 have landed in American professional baseball.

The documentary was filmed over a period of 4 years.

The Cuban players suffer from loneliness and a lack of a strong family presence but is their hope in making it that gives them the fortitude to continue.

At this point:

  1. Will any of these Cubans make it?
  2. Are they treated like commodities by the MLB machine?
  3. Do they have any bargaining power or are they driven by desperation?
  4. What is the state of Cuban baseball?
  5. Are sports dreams of making it professionally any different than any other migrant trying to make it to the golden land of the United States?
  6. The US trade embargo with Cuba made it illegal to sign a professional player with Cuban residence. Was this a misguided policy penalizing Cuban citizens?

In addition to baseball centric issues viewers will see the attempt by one of players to make it through Central America including a trip with smugglers to enter Mexico. One of many thousands fleeing crime and poverty in Central America. These people are literally running to the American border for a dream of peace and economic prosperity. As Cubans they hope for asylum.

Two of the players join their Cuban expatriates in the USA while a third signs a contract with a Dominican Republic baseball team. Do you think they miss baseball?

Is this a baseball or migrant story? It is both and consequently can be enjoyed by a wider audience.

As a closing comment I have a buddy that had a son years ago that was gung-ho into hockey at an elite level. Incredibly he related the story that half the parents thought their children would be playing in the National Hockey League. Could it be that professional sports aspirations are delusional respective of the country they originate in!

RKS Film Rating 90/100.

“Travels to a Different Time” : March 2004: Puntarenas Costa Rica: Face to Face with a Venomous Central American Coral Snake

I was up early so decided to head over the rocks to another beach. I was hoping to see the howler monkeys we have been hearing. So I climbed the rocks and headed to a nearby beach walking barefoot on the sand. No howler monkeys barking away but head down on this early morning I raise my head and look ahead and I am glad I did as if I did not I may not have been around the tell this story. A few feet away looking me in eye is a Central American Coral Snake highly venomous. I froze in my tracks with my mouth saying. “Holy Shit!”. I walk backwards very slowly and the snake heads off.  Although just after 07:00 I could use a couple shots of Costa Rican rum.

RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: Museums and the Big Box Office Draw

“Museums want the real deal, but they also want the flash of the celebrity name. They are better off with a small handful of renowned pieces, rather than rooms full of excellent examples of little-known artists. Your average public would flock to an exhibition that consisted solely of Whistler’s Mother before they would grudgingly attend a museum full of Kusnetov, Tatlin, Malevich and Chashnik and the history of Suprematism in Russia, in which you run the risk of actually learning something. No, museums want to big names to put on their ties and coffee mugs.”

Noah Charney “The Art Thief”, Washington Square Press 2007.

“Travels to a Different Time”: March 2004: Puntarenas Costa Rica: The Shuttle Bus into Liberia

The hotel description stated there was shuttle service into the town of Liberia. Nothing was stated whether it was complimentary or if there was a charge for using the shuttle service. The trip was 50 minutes and a return trip cost the four of us $80USD. Part of the trip was the road we took from the airport to our hotel. From a distance the topography is brown but up close there are patches of green. There were a few controlled fires burning. Liberia is dry and dusty and far from being developed touristically unlike for example Playa de Carmen outside of Cancun. There were a few shops selling to tourists. We went to the supermarket and bought a kilo of Costa Rican coffee for $9 and some aged rum for $14. The church was ugly fabricated with cement slabs. The return trip was a bit more interesting as we cut through backroads and saw fields of sugar cane. The soil has a reddish tinge to it.

RKS Literature: Passage of the Day; Bureaucracy at the Ministry!

“You can feel the bureaucratic atmosphere of the Ministry as soon as you enter the hall. The place is infused with the threat of large numbers of people in hiding. Everyone is studiously dedicating themselves to ignoring what you want. Backs are turned as soon as they perceive you are a stranger and might ask questions.”

Timothy Findley “The Wars” 1977

“Travels to a Different Time” : 15March2004: Puntarenas, Costa Rica: The Fateful Glass of Water and the “Lucky Lady”

As a North American we are always on alert about European water! It’ll kill you if you are not careful. The food might kill you too so eat at McDonald’s in Paris every night! On a trip to Mexico I had a vicious crippling attack of Montezuma’s that I could only wish on my worst enemy. It was either those damn jungle tomatoes or a counterfeit bottle of water at Tulum in Mexico! Although I don’t eat at McDonalds every night or ever for that matter. But after a long day starting at 03:00 sitting down to dinner in Puntarenas Costa Rica poor wife Fotini had, without thinking, a huge glass of “tap water”. Twenty minutes later after snapping to attention she asked me if she made a mistake. Not having researched Costa Rican tap water I could not answer. As my mother said when travelling outside of North America better to drink beer and soft drinks and not the local water. Based on my Mexican plague near death experience it was either stick your finger down the throat and expel or wait until 7 a.m. and take your chances. It hit poor Fotini at 02:00 sounding vicious but it passed quickly and Fotini was happily eating a big breakfast the next day. As far as I can see it a lucky lady. It , of course, may have been the airplane food?

“Travels to a Different Time” : 15March2004: Welcome to Costa Rica

There are few advantages of having been victimized with a seat at the extreme back end of the plane next to the WC. However with those vacuum powered flushes ringing in my ear goodness me the plane deplaned at the rear making for my quick escape. The airport at Liberia is tiny with only two customs officials who were in no hurry. Bags were simply deposited on the floor at the airport for pick up. We were on the bus to our resort at Puntarenas and during our 40 minute trip I was surprised just how dry the vegetation was. Lots of long brown grasses with intermittent patches of green. I was told when rainy season arrives in a month or so the whole area explodes with green. The terrain s hilly. There were several cattle ranches, a catfish farm, rice paddies, ramshackle concrete homes and a few very basic restaurants and cafes. Our property is called Fiesta Resort and Spa set up in the hills overlooking the Gulf of Papagayo. The pool is the main centre of activity with of course the mandatory swim up bar. There is also a thatched bar near the pool with a snack bar. The buffet restaurant La Consecha has about 70 tables and adjacent to that is the restaurant with a Mediterranean theme. Upon arrival the family left me behind in the reception while they inspected the rooms. After they did not return to pick me up I figured I had been abandoned so asked for an extra key and took the golf cart shuttle up to the room. The rooms are comfortable all with an ocean view. Nice not having to bicker and bitch to get an ocean view room.

RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: The Ritual Authority of a Holster

“Wearing a holster gave you the ritual edge in authority. Even in spite of their training and the weeks apart spent establishing their rank through punishing drills and endless parades, the officers were vey young and most of them slimly built compared to the veterans of lumber camps and railroad gangs. In the end, it was only their mutual obedience to some intrinsic tyranny that held the men and officers in check-apart. Perhaps it was the airless limitations of the ship. Perhaps it was the storm. Whatever it was, the confrontations always came to the same conclusion. Someone would laugh.”

Timothy Findley, “The Wars”, 1977

RKS Wine: 2021 Plan de Dieu Côtes-du-Rhône Villages

The Plan de Dieu Côtes-du-Rhône Villages has rich aromas of hulled ripe strawberries, black cherry and bright spice buffed up by a tad of root beer. Tannins are moderate. The flavour is intense and rich perhaps too rich and power laden to be a good sipper. Loads of ripe strawberries which are at their peak and just about ready to be considered as overripe. Bordered by cherry liqueur. Short finish. A good multi-purpose bistro wine. My favourite bistro in New York, Les Deux Amis on my last visit served a tasteless Côtes-du-Rhône Villages and I would have enjoyed my Bucky Burger more with this Côtes-du-Rhône Villages! I would rather enjoy a glass of wine with my meal rather than suffering through it.

(Plan de Dieu Côtes-du-Rhône Villages 2021, AP Côtes-du-Rhône Villages, Ferraton Père & Fils, Tain, France, $19.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 74229, 750 mL, 14%, RKS Wine Rating 88/100).

“Travels to a Different Time”: 15March2004: Getting to Costa Rica from Toronto

Up at 03:00 for an early morning flight. Insane. Andrew, highly motivated was up in in a flash ready to go. The limo arrived 7 minutes early which is much better than 25 minutes early. Due to an ice storm the driver reused to climb the icy steps for the bags. I managed to throw some salt on the ice and we sped off in the damp grey gloom. Check in was smooth except for the fact that Fotini’s bag was 5 kilos overweight so she had to transfer 5 kilos of luggage into Andrew’s bag. I hope the pilots have more intelligence than the check in crew. The weight is the same in total! So many groggy people about waiting at the airport Tim Horton’s to open up for a fix of coffee. The Skyservice breakfast was a boxed one with a processed chicken sandwich. It might have been turkey? Also some yogurt, orange juice, cheese and a granola bar and a tiny cup of tea in the cheapest possible plastic cup. Landed in a roller coaster ride of turbulence in Liberia.