Cuba, Cubans and Cubas

Cuban baseball players sometimes are over rated, as amateurs they have all the scouts all over them.

Kendry Morales was considered a national hero in cuba, as a rookie he set several records in 2002, playing for Industriales had 352 appearences at the plate, 60 runs, 114 hits, 21 hr's, 82 rbi's and 46 extra base hits, he also played at third, first, right field and pitched.

Now Kendry is a traitor in Cuba, all records he set have an asterisk, this according to some Cubans I talked with here.

Morales is stuck in the Dominican Republic with some visa problems, the Angels are making arrangements to make him a Dominican Citizen, but it seems that is a little hard due to the way he came to the DR.

But if you think Kendry is in some kind of trouble think twice, Alay Soler, a fellow cuban is here without a passport, his former agent, Joe Cubas was suspended by the players association for confiscating his passport.


According to three baseball sources who independently confirmed the information on condition their names not be used, shortly after Cubas negotiated a three-year, $2.8 million contract for the 25-year-old right-hander last summer, he confiscated Soler's immigration documents and refused to return them until the player paid money the agent said was owed him. Soler disputed the claim, saying Cubas was asking for 15 percent commission -- more than three times the normal rate, and contacted the union, which sided with Soler.