PHOENIX — On March 28, 1999, Alexei Ramirez watched a baseball game on television from beginning to end. At Estadio Latinoamericano in Havana, the Baltimore Orioles defeated the Cuban national team, 3-2, though the score was of little consequence. The exhibition marked the first time a Major League Baseball team had played in Cuba since 1959.
"I was a kid, so I don’t think I really understood the significance of it all," Ramirez, who was 17 at the time, said through an interpreter Wednesday. "But I watched it to watch it and understand what type quality of baseball was out there.