Cuban delegation eyes Pittsburgh for sporting events
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Michael Diven could sense the skepticism. A boxing display between amateur fighters from Pittsburgh and Cuba, staged on the Roberto Clemente Bridge?
The logistics of the location were one thing. But would the Cuban boxing federation actually be interested in bringing a delegation here on July 30, less than a week before the start of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro?
Mr. Diven, a retired state representative and Brookline native, believes he has an emphatic answer for any doubters now. Last week, three Cuban officials — Marta Lidia Ruiz, the director of international relations for the National Sports Institute (INDER); Heriberto Suarez Pereda, the commissioner of Cuba’s baseball federation; and Judith Langaney, a baseball specialist and translator — traveled to Pittsburgh to meet with community leaders and to show their country’s commitment to this unique event.
“This visit is very important for us,” said Ms. Lidia Ruiz, through the translation of Ms. Langaney.
Mr. Diven has organized the Pittsburgh Donnybrook, a boxing match between fighters from Pittsburgh and Ireland, the last three years. He and several others, including Roberto Clemente Jr., traveled to Havana in November to sell Cuban sports officials on a similar event and were encouraged that something could get done.
Since then, though, despite INDER’s desire to be a part of it, Mr. Diven said he has not received the fundraising support from Pittsburgh’s corporate community that it will take to put on the event. He estimated the cost to be $230,000 and is looking for at least two or three major business partners to come through in the coming months.
“As slow as it’s been for sponsorship, it’s mainly predicated on the fact people thought it was so far out of the realm of possibility,” said Mr. Diven, who guided the Cuban visitors on a whirlwind tour of Pennsylvania.
Over the first three days of their trip, the Cubans spoke with Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, Pittsburgh City Council members and University of Pittsburgh chancellor Patrick Gallagher. They toured PNC Park and Consol Energy Center and watched some of Pittsburgh’s best boxers spar at Tom Yankello’s World Class Boxing Gym in Ambridge to get a feel for the potential competition.
Sunday, they traveled to Altoona to watch a Class AA baseball game between the Altoona Curve and the Richmond Fighting Squirrels. Monday was spent meeting with politicians in Harrisburg. Today and Wednesday, they will make the rounds in Washington, D.C., on Capitol Hill, before returning to Cuba on Thursday.
The Cuban visitors view building a relationship with Pittsburgh as another step in normalizing relations with the United States. They want to use opportunities like this to show that the countries can work together.
“The American policy toward Cuba, it’s been un-American,” Mr. Diven said. “The stated mission statement was to starve into submission 11 million people because we didn’t get along with their government. We should be looking at building the relationship. It’s contingent on us to kind of change that dynamic and open up dialogues.”
Mr. Diven and Mr. Suarez hope a successful boxing event in July will lead to a baseball tournament featuring Cuban teams of different age groups in Pittsburgh next summer.
“You look at sports, they change people’s viewpoints,” Mr. Diven said.
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