Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 21, 1990 TAG: 9007210121
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: LARRY JACKSON COX NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
When NBC's Sports Showcase travels to Havana today for live coverage of a baseball game between the U.S. and Cuban national teams, play-by-play man Bob Costas would like nothing better than to orchestrate a little foreign policy work as well as call a ballgame.
"I hope we're able to give some sense of what Cuba was like in the years prior to [Fidel] Castro," he said before he and former Mets manager Davey Johnson, who will handle the analysis, headed south. "We're hopeful, but not definite, that we can interview Castro. And if [an interview] were confined to just baseball, I'd feel less positive about it."
Not that the longtime Cuban leader couldn't talk a good game. He was an aspiring pitcher - scouted by the Washington Senators in a deft touch of irony - before he became an aspiring revolutionary.
Costas, who is one of television's more adept interviewers, wants more.
"A legitimate question," he said, "would be if he feels badly that players have been denied the opportunity to play in the American big leagues. Politically, Cuba is approaching isolation in the world. I'd ask if they can self-sustain."
But, he said, "there's a limit to how much I want to get into politics. I don't think anyone wants to hear me pontificate. I'm a sports broadcaster."
Toward all of that, the goal is to dovetail Cuba's baseball and political histories. Havana was home to a Class AAA team in the International League when Castro took power in 1959. That club moved to New Jersey in 1960 when the tension that led to the Bay of Pigs invasion and Cuban missile crisis began to build.
"There were dozens of American-born players who played there," Costas said. "We hope to show what kind of atmosphere prevailed then. We want to capture some of that."
Cuba has remained a major force in international amateur baseball, winning seven Pan American Games gold medals, including the last five.
Costas has been building up his background for the telecast by talking to, among others, Dodgers manager Tom Lasorda, who played winter ball for several seasons in Cuba.
Costas also had to do some homework regarding the players in the game, since they are not named Puckett or Canseco or Clemens or Strawberry.
"There's no way that I would have the depth of knowledge of these players," he said. "Some of the Cuban players would probably be recognizable to those viewers who have watched the Pan Am Games.
"We'll try to do a quick thumbnail sketch: `This guy is almost legendary in Cuba. . . . When he walks down the street the people toss rose petals.' I don't think you have to go into every aspect of his stance or his record."
This also is the part where Johnson will come in. He is familiar with Cuban players of the past, and Costas said Johnson will evaluate how many of the current crop would be able to cut it in the majors, or at least be big-league prospects.
The game also serves as a chance for Costas - who named his son after his boyhood idol Mickey Mantle - to feed his baseball habit. It's something he has been unable to do a lot of since NBC lost the major-league TV contract to CBS.
"It'll be fun," he said. "I like hanging around the game. I filled in two games for Jack Buck [on Cardinals radio] last weekend when he was doing the CBS game. And I've been to 14 or 15 Cardinals games so far this year.
"I won't treat it like a major-league game because the frame of reference is not the same."
But the larger story to Costas is simply the locale. "To me the most interesting part is going to Cuba," he said.
by CNB