If an MLB team plays a Spring Training game in Cuba next year, it "will be" the Rays, according to Michael Schmidt of the N.Y. TIMES. Commissioner Rob Manfred "chose the Rays" via a lottery system Friday at the league's HQ in N.Y. The game "would represent another significant moment in the continuing efforts" by the U.S. and Cuba to "normalize relations." But it is "not a foregone conclusion that the game will be played." The league "still needs to negotiate the terms of the contest with the Cuban government, although in all likelihood, the Rays would play the Cuban national team and the game would be played in Havana." The fact that a team from Tampa "won Manfred’s impromptu lottery is intriguing," as many Cubans fled to Florida, particularly Miami, after Fidel Castro "took control of the island" in '59. Tampa also has a "significant Cuban imprint, but it predates Castro, and as a result there is not the same bitterness toward the Cuban government long associated with Miami." Tampa now sees itself as "playing a key role in establishing stronger ties with the island," and the Rays’ participation in a Spring Training game "would reinforce that notion" (N.Y. TIMES, 11/14).
