K.C. Star: Royals catcher Brayan Peña is happy to leave Cuba behind
Ever since Peña decided to play baseball with his friend, Yunel
Escobar, at 9 years old, it had been leading up to this. They were
naturals, Peña the chubby slugger and Escobar the speedy infielder.
As 11-year-olds, they were placed on a Cuban junior national team
that was going to play a tournament in Mexico. Looking back, it had
been a trip that had set everything in motion.
Peña was the son of two teachers, but there was a limit to what
he could learn living in Fidel Castro's Cuba. Growing up in Havana
during the 1980s, Peña might as well have been living in the Soviet
Union.
"The only other movies we could watch was Russian movies," Peña
says. "The only other language we could speak was Russian. The cars
were from the Soviet Union. The world was too big for us."
But, because Peña could hit a baseball, he was allowed to see
something else. The Cuban government didn't allow the boys to go
anywhere but from the hotel to the ballpark and back, but that was
enough time for them to see all the different kinds of cars and the
rhythms of life in a free country. At the hotel, Peña and Escobar
watched TV, and there just happened to be a feed from a channel
called TBS.
"That was the first time we saw Major League Baseball, and it was
the Braves," Peña says. "It really kept our attention because of
their uniform."
由以上的小故事可以得知，用心设计球队制服，
对于吸引古巴人加入是很有帮助的