Cuban Baseball Team To Arrive In Miami Sunday

MIAMI (CBSMiami) ? Members of Cuba?s Industriales baseball team are scheduled to arrive in Miami on Sunday evening for a game against some of their former teammates who defected to the U.S.

One problem, though, their scheduled game for August 11th at Florida International University was abruptly cancelled more than a week ago and no replacement field has been found.

The veteran Cuban ball players were granted permission to travel under the so-called ?people-to-people? tours both governments have been approving more in recent years.

Cuba relaxed its restrictions on travel in January, increasing the number of Cubans able to travel legally to the United States and allowing several prominent dissidents to travel abroad freely since then. The change allows Cubans to travel abroad without need of an exit visa for the first time since the government imposed restrictions half a century ago to stanch the flow of people fleeing the country after the 1959 revolution.

The ?Azules? or ?Blues?, as the Industriales are known, are Cuba?s most successful baseball team and are often compared to the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball because of their success on the field and due to the fact that they have fans and enemies throughout their country.

The team won its first championship in the 1962-1963 season and later went on to win 11 more with their latest in 2010.

The team, whose members are all over 40 years old, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida has questioned whether the cancellation of the game constitutes a violation of First Amendment rights.

?We have troubling evidence that Florida International University canceled the contract for the event based on expectations about political speech or fears about hostile reaction from some community groups which may or may not occur,? said Maria Kayanan, associate legal director of the ACLU of Florida.

The game was canceled abruptly less than a week after tickets went on sale. A spokeswoman for FIU said at the time the game was being canceled due to a contractual matter and declined to further elaborate.

In Cuba, the cancellation was dismissed as a sign of Miami?s intolerance for athletes and musicians who live and perform on the island.

If a venue can?t be found in time, the ?Blues? will travel to Tampa where they will play at August 23rd and 24th.

(TM and ? Copyright 2013 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2013 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

Source: http://miami.cbslocal.com/2013/08/11/cuban-baseball-team-to-arrive-in-miami-sunday/

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