2023-08-15 16:51:58
despite football Cuba keep breathing baseball… and pining for him. It is repeated by the empty stadiums that were recently filled. They showed it on Team Asher and our Hunters. We are taught this every day by kids who insist on hitting home runs, running the hell out of the bases, and fielding the most complicated ground balls.
But it won’t be Dayán, Yunieski or Geonel Gutiérrez who will consolidate the prestige of this archipelago in the world of baseball, but those guys who will bring generation after generation of new and better talents. They embody the true strategy of the future.
These reasons led us to talk with Manuel Orlando Vigoa Amores, provincial baseball commissioner, who assures that he intends to do everything possible for these children.
What attention is given to the lower categories?
“Although in Alquízar, Güira de Melena, Artemisa, Guanajay and San Antonio de los Baños they work quite well, most of the municipalities sometimes do not even participate in the championships organized in the territory. From the province they are given very little, actually, because there are no balls and other sports equipment.
“It is the parents of those boys who get what is necessary and even plan the competitions, they even put on the buses. In recent years it has been like that for those categories.”
What budget does the provincial commission have to ensure the minimum conditions for teachers and athletes?
“The commission does not have any, except for the National Series, which has its own budget. That is handled at the level of a budgeted unit. I couldn’t talk about figures either, because they are divided between the Eide, the stadium and Sports Medicine.
“For the National Series there is financing in order to pay for the equipment and how much is assigned to it. But there have been problems with the rest of the categories.
And doesn’t that contradict the new national baseball strategy, which is supposed to go in search of massiveness and training from the base?
“I think so. We are waiting for the approval of the Sports Law, where we hope to see the differentiation in the budget, that we all know how much there is for the school categories, the under 15s and under 18s, not to mention the seniors, because it is independent”.
In any case, the salary of the players of the National Series has been discussed for a while…
“It has been unknown since it began to be paid, first because there is equality; Many argue that whoever plays should earn more. But it was a law approved by the National Assembly: 32 players earn 3,500 pesos each and the other eight 2,500. Now it is said that in the Elite League they would pay a little more, but there is nothing concrete.
Not a few prospects in children or school ages are left on the road, unable to pay for their implements.
“Yes, there are parents who sometimes cannot afford these expenses, and their children do not go to the facilities and competitions. Today it is very difficult to acquire gloves, uniforms…, sometimes even in foreign currency”.
Precisely, doesn’t the new baseball strategy define that it is the governments who assume that, with the participation of local industries and self-employed workers?
“The new Law that is being discussed includes these aspects. But it cost a fortune to put the numbers on the uniforms of the National Series players, in a local private business. It is difficult as long as that law is not promulgated ”.
How do you evaluate the accommodation conditions in the Eide?
“Currently they are not good. We are asking for two dedicated baseball cubicles to improve them, with the obvious help of parents. There are even those who don’t want to be there, players that we also lose along the way.”
He said that many times the limits and competitions are the responsibility of the parents…
“Already today in those categories almost everything is on his shoulders. There are very few municipalities (those mentioned above) that still believe in it and are really committed to it. Right now a tournament is being played between Havana and the Artemisa municipality, and they took care of everything; They even rented the buses.”
Can’t something else be done from the provincial commission?
“Of course. We devised a strategy in order to help provide sports equipment, so that they have something in the ball fields: we are based on the amount that is assigned to us when the school year begins; we want to give to everyone, but above all to the municipalities that work the most and thus stimulate them”.
#lands #passion #future