HAVANA - Major League Baseball officials and players will visit Cuba this month for a goodwill tour, MLB’s first event on the Caribbean island since a 1999 exhibition game between the Cuban national team and the Baltimore Orioles.
Baseball, nicknamed America’s pastime, is the most-popular sport in Cuba and is seen as an avenue for diplomacy as the relations between the former Cold War adversaries thaw.
Hall of Fame player and manager Joe Torre, who is now MLB’s chief baseball officer, and Hall of Fame player Dave Winfield, representing the players’ union, will tour Cuba from Dec.