Orioles to take on Cuba national team

The Baltimore Orioles will become the first US big league team to play in baseball-crazed Cuba since a diplomatic thaw, playing Havana's national team, a Cuban official said Tuesday.

In December, US President Barack Obama and Cuba's Raul Castro announced a historic change of course after more than five decades of Cold War bad blood.

“A clash with the Orioles is planned,'' the director of Cuba's National Institute of Sport, Antonio Becali said, quoted by Radio Habana Cuba.

The Orioles will play “this year against our national team but the date has not been set yet,'' he said.

The Orioles first string is not expected since they will be busy with their regular season, Becali said.

But he added that Cuba's national team was still looking forward to the clash.

The teams played each other once before in 1999, first in Havana where the Orioles won 3-2.

The Cubans turned it around and won on the road in a 12-6 romp in Baltimore's Camden Yards.