Angels Aim for Exhibition With Cuba

The Baltimore Orioles have the inside track on becoming the first major league baseball team in 52 years to play an exhibition game in Cuba, but the Angels are charging hard down the backstretch, positioning themselves to overtake the Orioles.

The Angels have applied to the U.S. Treasury Department for the license that would allow club officials to travel to Cuba and negotiate terms of a game against its national team or an all-star team next year, a department spokesman confirmed Tuesday. Approval, although expected, is still pending.

The Orioles received a similar license last month, soon after President Clinton announced a series of humanitarian exceptions to the long-standing U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, and they planned to travel to Havana for a game against a Cuban all-star team on March 28. The Cuban team was tentatively scheduled to play an April 3 exhibition in Baltimore’s Camden Yards.

But with the regular season six weeks away, the Orioles’ hopes have all but evaporated in a flurry of diplomatic jousting. Baltimore owner Peter Angelos visited Havana last month to negotiate with Cuban officials but talks broke down over which charities would get proceeds from the games.

Time is running critically short to arrange the games, and if the Orioles cannot reach agreement, the Cuban government could open negotiations with the Angels for an exhibition series next year.

“The stadium in Havana holds 60,000 people, but if they had a 120,000-seat stadium, they’d fill it,” said Preston Gomez, a Cuban native who is a special assistant to Angel General Manager Bill Bavasi. “This would get the two governments connected. I’ve always said people connected with sports can do more than politicians.”

Though Cuban leader Fidel Castro is a baseball fan, no major league team has visited Cuba since the Brooklyn Dodgers played there in 1947. The Cuban national team ranks as the world’s premier amateur team but has been stung by recent defections, among them Marlin pitcher Livan Hernandez and his half-brother, Yankee pitcher Orlando Hernandez.

Gomez, who was unaware of the Angels’ intentions, said a series between teams from the U.S. and Cuba could be the first step toward lifting Castro’s ban of Cubans playing in the U.S.

“And all the players who make good money here, if they were allowed to go back to Cuba, they would invest it there,” Gomez, 75, said. “I hope people who fled Cuba can go back and see their family and friends.”

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A large media contingent and a good-sized crowd were on hand Tuesday for Mo Vaughn’s first workout with the Angels, and from Bavasi to the clubhouse kid cleaning spikes, everyone was excited to see the slugging first baseman in an Angel uniform.

But there was one player who was just a little more elated than everyone else--Angel reliever Mike Holtz, the left-hander who no longer has to deal with the menacing Vaughn.

Holtz said he will never forget the first time he faced Vaughn. He was 23, recently promoted from double-A Midland, and the Boston Red Sox had the bases loaded with two outs and were trailing the Angels by a run in the bottom of the eighth inning of an ESPN-televised game in Fenway Park.

Vaughn struck out that night and the Angels held on for the victory, but whenever the Angels played Boston, Holtz was consumed with visions of Vaughn. And they weren’t pleasant.

“Now he can put those thoughts in the minds of other left-handed relievers,” Holtz said. “I’m glad I don’t have to worry about him anymore.”

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Staff writer Bill Shaikin contributed to this story.