March 24, 2016 [LINK / comment]
During his historic visit to Cuba this week, President Obama took the time to enjoy a game of beísbol (baseball) with Cuban President Raul Castro, in which the Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Cuban national team, 4-1. After the game, the players exchanged jerseys with each other as a goodwill gesture. See MLB.com, and (en español) cubanet.org. It's ironic (and tragic) that such hard feelings exist between two neighboring countries who share a love for Our National Pastime. As for the politics of the visit, and the rather silly complaints about Obama seeing a ballgame in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Brussels, see CNN.com.
To mark the first visit of a U.S. president to Cuba since the 1920s, I present a diagram (and rather sketchy, preliminary page of text) for Estadio Latinoamericano. Obviously, it was a rush job, so there will no doubt be revisions in the months (or years?) to come. Who knows, I might even visit that ballpark myself some time.
If you think about it, this old stadium is a lot like all the '57 Chevies and other antique classic U.S.-made automobiles you see on the streets of Havana: not much appreciated during the ultra-modernizing years of the 1950s and 1960s, but now treasured as priceless relics. Of particular note are the inclined light towers, similar to the ones in Estadio Dennis Martinez in Nicaragua and Hiram Bithorn Stadium in Puerto Rico. Also, the huge, three-tiered bleacher section in the outfield is unique as far as I know.
The marked dimensions of Estadio Latinoamericano are:
Given that the outfield fences are perpendicular, the power alleys ought to be about 352 feet, so I assume that the markers are a bit toward the foul poles from the true power alleys. See the Outfield trigonometry page.
The Washington Nationals trounced the New York Yankees 13-0 yesterday, a game which of course meant almost nothing. Wilson Ramos hit a home run, while Ben Revere, Anthony Rendon, and Matt den Dekker all had multi-hit games, and Steven Strasburg struck out nine batters over five innings. Not bad at all! Today the Nats beat the St. Louis Cardinals, , 8-2, raising their record in the pre-season to 15-4. The Arizona Diamondbacks still have the highest win-loss record: 19-4.