The Cuban baseball player Orlando Acebey He managed to reunite with his family in the United States, after four years of separation after leaving the Cuba team in that country.
“After several years of waiting, Cuban baseball player Orlando Acebey managed to reunite with his family in the United States. It took 4 years to pass,” he indicated in his social networks the sports journalist Francys Romero.
El que fuera infielder de Sancti Spíritus He left the Cuban national team on June 24, 2019during a tour of the Can-Am LeagueRomero stated in his publication.
On that occasion, the Santiago prospect also left the team Norway Carlos Verawho was 19 years old and had a 95-mile fastball that made him coveted by several Major League organizations.
Acebey, son of the historic third baseman from Villa Clara Rafael Orlando Acebey -who was crowned in the 90s with the Villa Clara team in several Cuban championships- was prevented from seeing his family during all this time of forced separation.
“Norge Carlos Vera Aldana and Orlando Acebey Gutiérrez also decided to break their commitment and left the Cuba team after the last game in the Can-Am baseball League. It’s part of the war we continue to face. We will go to Lima 2019,” declared the Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB) in 2019.
For his part, the president of INDER, Osvaldo Vento Montiller, took advantage of the event to refer to Washington’s decision to cancel the agreement that the FCB and the Major Leagues had reached. “Reprehensible attitudes in the midst of the harassment that the end of the Agreement between MLB and FCB meant for our baseball. We will move forward,” he wrote.
Roberto Leon Richards, head of the Cuban Olympic Committee, also directed his criticism towards the US administration. “The authors of the cancellation of the MLB-FCB Agreement knew and sought precisely this: the irregularities in the arrival of our players to the Major Leagues. Nothing could be further from the Olympic spirit,” he tweeted.
The agreement between the FCB and the MLB was negotiated for three years and sought to offer a “safe” route to the island’s baseball players so that they could enroll under contracts in the 30 American professional teams, without losing residency in Cuba.
In April 2019, the United States Department of the Treasury informed the MLB in a letter that it had decided to cancel a decision made by the former president’s government. Barack Obama (2009-2017) and that allowed the Major Leagues to pay a release fee to the FCB to hire Cuban players.
The trump administration considered that a payment to the FCB was “a payment to the Government of Cuba” and recalled the prohibition of carrying out this type of financial transactions with the authorities of the Caribbean country because it violated the embargo.
The change directed by Trump in the sports approach policy did not sit well at all in Havana, where sports directors and regime authorities had high expectations.
Although Acebey did not continue his baseball career in the United States, Cuban authorities may have contributed to delaying the baseball player’s reunion with his family. Finally, this Saturday he managed to meet with his parents, his wife and his daughters.
Acebey in Cuban baseball
With 15 National Baseball Series, Orlando Acebey achieved an average of .295, with 853 hits in 2,887 times at bat.
The domestic campaign corresponding to 2018-2019 was successful for Acebey, according to the portal Swing Completo. He averaged .374 and finished as the leader in hits with 143.
The 49 RBIs and 23 extra-base hits that season influenced the decision to join the Cuba team that went to the Can-am League, where he finally defected.
