Sports Diplomacy. Michał Marcin Kobierecki
they were justified by the initiators.
Despite no success in arranging baseball exchanges until the mid-1970s, both states managed to arrange contacts in other sports. For example, in March 1977 Department of State agreed that a team of basketball players from the University of South Dakota and South Dakota State University would travel to Cuba in the following month.121 About baseball diplomacy, a proposition was raised by Cleveland Indians in 1978. The team wanted to play a series of exhibition matches against Cuba in Tucson, Arizona. The idea was not accepted by MLB executive council though, while Kuhn was reported to have received mixed signals from the Carter administration.122 All this shows that there were numerous attempts to establish friendly baseball contacts between the United States and Cuba in the 1970s. For various reasons they have failed, often because of political issues. The chances of successful arrangement of baseball exchange between both countries diminished along with the end of the détente period of the 1970s.
In 1987 Pan American Games were held in Indianapolis, and Cuba decided to participate. Before the Games, American amateur national baseball team played a series of five exhibition matches in Cuba. The Cubans, including Fidel Castro himself, gave Americans a friendly reception. A year later the series was repeated in the United States,123 and the exchanges were continued in the years that followed. During the events, fans from both countries were behaving very kindly to the visiting players.124 The diplomatic significance of the exchanges was therefore quite clear.
The annual amateur baseball series were organized until 1996 and did not avoid problems, such as the protests by Cuban immigrants. It is claimed that many of the matches were held in Millington, Tennessee, to limit the number of protesters because it was far from big cities. Defections of Cuban players who wanted to play in American clubs were another problem.125 In 1996 the tension in bilateral relations rose after Cubans shot down two American aircrafts which were dropping flyers to Cuba, and shortly after Clinton’s administration passed the Helms-Burton Act which tightened the embargo imposed on Cuba.126 In July 1997 Cuban national team was supposed to play eight matches in the United States, but the tour was canceled under controversial circumstances. The annual exchanges were never resumed.127
Another change of the attitude of the American government concerning Cuba took place after the visit of John Paul II to Cuba in 1998.128 In January 1999, the US government agreed to intensify people-to-people contacts and cultural exchanges with Cuba. This gave an opportunity for the establishment of sports relations between MLB and Cuba, although according to Justin Turner, these initiatives were not directed at rapprochement between both countries, but to “aid Cuban people and hasten Castro’s downfall, through fostering discord in Cuba as a result of increased exposure to American people, prosperity, and culture.”129
The owner of Baltimore Orioles Peter Angelos who was looking for a possibility to play against the Cuban national team for a couple of years took advantage of those new circumstances. The US government agreed to his proposition that Orioles would play against Cuba: one match in Havana and a rematch in the United States, but it required that the Cuban government would not benefit economically from the matches. In response to protests of organizations of Cuban immigrants the US administration also declared that it was not an introduction to normalization and that the matches were to help promote democracy in Cuba.130 Of course, the positive effect of people-to-people relations should also be taken into account. Even if the actual objective of establishing baseball contacts was to acquire players (in case of American clubs) or to dismantle the political system of another country (as was declared by the US administration), a sports contact might lead to the rapprochement between nations anyway. The motivation of the US administration is not entirely clear, and the declarations on striking the Cuban regime might well have been directed at responding to the domestic protesters rather than expressing actual objectives.
The first match between Baltimore Orioles and the Cuban national team was held in Havana in March 1999. The American team won by a narrow margin 3-2, whereas the Cuban team won spectacularly in Baltimore in May (12-6).131 Gerald Gems described this result as probably the most satisfying sports achievement of Cuba in recent years.132 When the players returned to Cuba, Fidel Castro personally congratulated Andy Morales whose home run delivered Cuba’s victory.133 Castro was also present at the stadium during the match in Havana and visited the Cuban team during its preparations for the rematch. On the other hand, the American government was trying to avoid mixing the matches with politics. Neither Bill Clinton nor any other representative of his administration attended the game in Baltimore.134 Thomas Garofalo summarized this claiming that from the US perspective baseball diplomacy with Cuba was held “in spite of government policies, not because of them.”135 Admittedly, both sides suggested they were willing to lead to political opening, but each of them had their motivations as well. Cuba was interested in increasing its national prestige, whereas the Americans wanted to use the exchange to hit the Cuban regime. In general, though, rapprochement appeared to be at least one of the few goals of the exchange.
According to Robert Elias, baseball diplomacy associated with matches between Orioles and the Cuban national team gave hope for an improvement of mutual relations.136 In the following years baseball exchanges on the lower level were organized. This included visits of American university teams to Cuba and exchanges on the youth level.137 Contacts on higher levels were resumed under Obama’s administration. A prominent example of baseball diplomacy is connected to an exhibition match in Havana in March 2016 between the Cuban national team and Tampa Bay Rays. The game was attended by Barack Obama and Cuban president Raul Castro,138 although it was not the basic reason for their meeting, rather a culmination of the historic visit of American president to Cuba. No official statement was made in reference to the meeting, but it was a clear symbol that despite political differences sport was something that both countries had in common.139
American-Cuban baseball diplomacy is not a complete process. Since the relations between both states still are not friendly, it appears that there is a need to use this popular sport as a channel to political rapprochement. It is also hard to anticipate the further evolution of rapprochement between both countries under Donald Trump’s administration.
It should be stressed that baseball diplomacy between the United States and Cuba was realized through a sport which is very popular in both countries. As a result, particularly the Cuban side attempted to use the exchanges to increase its prestige, whereas individual American administrations were reluctant about such sports exchanges. On the other hand, from the perspective of possible rapprochement the sport was appropriate because it generated interest of both societies. Similarly to the cases of this type of sports diplomacy described earlier in this chapter, baseball exchanges were usually initiated on the grassroots level from the American perspective, but the US government was reluctant to making diplomatic utility out of them. A very distinct approach might be also observed among the US and Cuban authorities, with a more careful attitude of the Americans.
Canadian-Soviet Hockey Diplomacy
Hockey diplomacy between Canada and the Soviet Union is another example of employing sport to bring states closer. Ice hockey is very important in Canada. It is commonly associated with this country and plays a significant role in Canadian public diplomacy.140 Hockey traditions in the USSR are more modest, but Soviet society was enthusiastic about the sport as well.141 Thus, hockey exchanges had strong potential in shaping relations between both countries, although the popularity of the sport also meant various difficulties in successfully using the exchanges for rapprochement.
In 1968 Pierre Trudeau became Canada’s prime minister. Improving relations with the Soviet Union was one of his foreign policy goals. It was supposed to increase Canada’s self-reliance in international relations.142 Trudeau believed that since both states were successful in hockey, it was a logical tool for developing closer relations.143 The Soviet side was also ready to redefine relations with Canada.144
In 1971 Trudeau visited the USSR and met with Soviet prime minister Alexei Kosygin. Their meeting was commented as very successful in the context of strengthening bilateral relations. Shortly afterward,