Cubaball Tours announces 2018 dates
SABR member Kit Krieger of Cubaball Tours is pleased to announce that the 19th annual baseball tour of Cuba will be conducted from September 23-30, 2018.
Highlights of the tour include:
- Five games of the 58th National Series in five different ballparks. Games are scheduled in Havana, Mayabeque, Atemesa, Cienfuegos, Pinar del Rio, Sancti Spiritus, Matanzas and Villa Clara during our stay, affording an opportunity to see most of the teams in the 16-team National Series.
- Meetings with current and veteran players: we often have access to the field, dugouts and clubhouses. The meeting with veterans includes Luis Zayas, the last surviving member of the fabled Havana Sugar Kings living in Cuba, who also played with Cienfuegos in the Cuban Winter League. Former players attending recent meetings include Alfredo Street, one of the stars of the early years of the National Series and Florentino Fernandez, the cousin of Humberto “Chico” Fernandez. Florentino played in the Negro Leagues for the Detroit Stars.
- Meeting with Sigfredo Barros, the baseball-beat writer for Granma, the national newspaper of Cuba.
- Visit to the monuments erected in Colon Cemetery by the Christian Association of Players, Managers and Umpires in 1942 and 1951. A group of dedicated baseball historians has located the graves of 150 former players, including Adolfo Luque and Hall of Famer, Jose Mendez Caridad. In 2017, the group found the remains of Cristobal Torriente, who died in New York in 1938. News of the discovery of Torriente’s remains was announced at the recent SABR meeting in Pittsburgh.
- Visit to Tropical Stadium, home of the Cuban Winter League from 1930 to 1946.
- Visit to the site of the first Almendares Park, the home Cuban teams from 1883 to 1923.
- Meeting with the baseball historians who have worked to re-establish the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame, identify the burial places of Cuban baseball players and preserve the rich legacy of Cuban baseball.
- Seminars on contemporary Cuba, including US-Cuban relations.
The tour is licensed by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control and complies with US requirements for travel to Cuba. The tour price is $2,999 based on double occupancy. The price includes accommodation in four and five-star hotels in Havana and the best available accommodation outside of Havana, most meals, all scheduled events, transfers, land travel in air-conditioned coaches, and the services of bilingual guides. Not included are return airfare from Cuba (we help book), beverages, and gratuities.
The tour is limited to 25 people. Contact Kit Krieger (ejkrieger@shaw.ca) to register.
- Related link: Donald Plavnick: My experience on the Cubaball Tour
Originally published: July 12, 2018. Last Updated: July 12, 2018.