``Oh, what a great place!'' the New York Yankees interim manager said. ``Cuba -- Havana, Cuba! People fought to get to Cuba.
``They loved their baseball. It was electric. They went goofy for their players. Oh, Havana, Cuba, was something I'll never forget!''
Starting pitcher Scott Erickson and the rest of the Baltimore Orioles will always remember their visit, too. The 55,000 fans who pack Latinoamericano Stadium for Sunday's game between Baltimore and the Cuban national team will make sure of it.
``I will let our players know that this will be the seventh game of the World Series for their country,'' Orioles manager Ray Miller said.
In fact, it might mean even more than that.
It's been 40 years since a major league team visited this one-time International League hotspot, the old home of Cincinnati's Triple-A club, the Havana Sugar Kings.
Cincinnati pitcher Brooks Lawrence made that final trip in March 1959 when the Reds played the Los Angeles Dodgers in an exhibition game at the same park, called the Gran Stadium de La Habana when it opened in 1946.
That game took place two months after a former University of Havana right-hander -- Fidel Castro -- took power on the communist island nation.
``It was a crazy atmosphere,'' Lawrence said. ``The new reign was coming in. Fidel came to the dugout and talked to a few of the players.
``You saw the people walking around with guns and shooting over the ballpark. It was something.''
Former Reds pitcher Joe Nuxhall also played in Havana that spring.
``There were guys with machine guns and machetes standing everywhere,'' he said. ``Right away we said, `What's going on?' I'd go to the ballpark and they were all over out there. It was scary.''
In July 1960, the Sugar Kings moved to Jersey City, N.J., and American ball never returned. Pretty soon, the Cuban stars who played after the likes of Tony Oliva, Luis Tiant, Tony Perez and Camilo Pascual stopped making their way out.
Later, some young boys who left the baseball-crazed country blossomed into big leaguers -- Jose Canseco, Rafael Palmeiro and Tony Fossas, among them.
And more recently, Cuban defectors have been making a major impact in the majors -- 1997 World Series MVP Livan Hernandez, his older half-brother, Orlando ``El Duque'' Hernandez, Rey Ordonez and Rolando Arrojo.
The Communist Party's Granma newspaper prints nothing about the defectors, although it occasionally ran stories last year about Mark McGwire. Two years before floating away from Cuba to star in his own World Series, El Duque listened to Livan's games broadcast on a radio station from Miami.
Chances are, a major league team wouldn't have returned to Cuba until well into the new millennium if not for Orioles owner Peter Angelos. He started pushing for the trip several years ago, wanting to be the first to take a team back.
Rebuffed in his first bid in 1996, Angelos didn't give up. Staying in touch with the State Department and the White House, he got a break in January when President Clinton lightened restrictions against Cuba.
Even then, it was difficult to set up a home-and-home series that included the Cubans visiting Camden Yards in Baltimore May 3.
It took more trips to Cuba and more negotiations before both sides agreed what to do with the proceeds. The Americans didn't want any money going to Castro's government, so whatever is made will be used to support sports in both places.
Box seats for Cuban games usually cost 2 pesos (about 10 cents). But that's a lot in a place where the average monthly income is less than $11. In coming years, the delicately arranged visit might lead to more teams playing on the Caribbean island, provided all papers are in order. The Orioles had to scramble to make sure players without passports were not held up by visa problems.
``If this works, I'd encourage it,'' commissioner Bud Selig said.
But the game probably won't make it easier for Cuban players, such as star third baseman Omar Linares, to join the majors. It also probably won't make it easier for the Orioles or anyone else to tap into Cuban talent.
``I know there are a lot of ballplayers who can come here right now and play,'' said Oliva, the former AL batting champion and now a minor league hitting coach for Minnesota.
Linares hit three home runs, including an upper-deck drive at Atlanta's Fulton-County Stadium that clinched the gold medal at the 1996 Olympics. He probably will not get to see Orioles third baseman Cal Ripken, whose father, Cal Sr., died Thursday.
While the Orioles will be the only team from the majors in Cuba, the rest of the league also will have a presence. Each team was allowed to send two representatives, although not every club will do that.
There also were other issues to be worked out, such as umpires, bats (the Cubans will use wood, instead of the aluminum they've had since 1977) and the need for padding on the outfield walls.
Set up as an exchange of sportsmanship, not political views, the game still has its opponents. Several groups have protested at Orioles games this spring, with Marlins owner John Henry taking part.
Orioles pitcher Juan Guzman, who was born in the Dominican Republic and lives in Miami, asked out of the trip. And although Cuban umpires will work the game, AL umpire Rich Garcia called the exhibition ``a disgrace.''
Baseball ``is being very insensitive to the Cuban people and the Cuban players,'' said Garcia, whose great-grandparents were Cuban. ``They have families over there who are suffering.''
Zimmer played winter ball in Cuba long before Castro took over and remembers the good times, when music and dancing and cigar smoke filled the stands. Others who played then also talk fondly about those days.
``The best ball ever played in Latin America was played in Cuba,'' said Tony Gonzalez, an outfielder who starred for the Sugar Kings in the late '50s before hitting .300 three times for the Philadelphia Phillies.
``The stadium was well-kept, just like in the major leagues. The field was great,'' he said. ``The fans liked to argue, telling you what you did right and wrong. In Cuba, they loved baseball.''
© Copyright 1999 The Associated Press