The game of baseball has long been considered the American pastime, but its popularity has surged throughout the world — specifically in Central America and the Caribbean.

That same game of baseball has had quite the year here at Grand Valley State University. On top of a 52-5 regular season and a trip to the NCAA Division II Baseball Championship, the GVSU baseball team recently experienced their game on entirely foreign soil.

Cuban soil, to be exact.

After visiting the island in November 2010, head coach Steve Lyon organized a trip for his team to travel to the Caribbean island earlier this month, and they did just that from Jan. 3 to Jan. 9, spending a week in the Cuban capital of Havana playing baseball and experiencing a culture many have never experienced.

“To experience another country and see the passion that the Cubans have for the game of baseball is something we wanted our guys too see,” said Lyons, who first visited the island with Grand Rapids area group First-Hand Aid. “We also wanted them to see another culture. They’re a communist country and here we’re a democratic country, and what I wanted to do was have our guys experience a different culture.”

That cultural experience was something that gave players and coach alike a rare opportunity to experience something both socially and in a way, athletically with baseball.

“From a personal standpoint I think we all got an appreciation of what we have here,” said freshman infielder Kevin Zak. “We saw the other end of the spectrum in terms of poverty and how little they have. It’s a different way of life and it’s pretty eye opening for us.”

While the trip was filled with cultural interaction with the Cuban people, the experience the team gained while on the field was also a positive.

Playing against the top players from 18 to 22 years old that Cuba had to offer, the teams faced off in three games. Despite acknowledging that they weren’t in mid-season form, the Lakers competed with their Cuban all-star counterparts, albeit coming home winless after falling 8-5, 13-5 and 4-3 in 10 innings.

“Their hitters were super aggressive, that was their approach at the plate,” said senior pitcher Cory Rademacher. “I’m a pitcher, so they were swinging at a lot of first pitches and I wasn’t really expecting that. It’s basically the same style, but I’d compare them to a really good Division II World Series team.”

Even with the on-field success lacking, the gamesmanship and passion the Cuban players showed toward the game of baseball, and the Lakers, was something that made an impression on the team.

“The people were really friendly. I thought they were going to be hostile towards Americans but to be honest they really weren’t,” Rademacher said. “They cheered for baseball in general, not necessarily Cuba. That’s all they do, play baseball, and they really don’t have any other jobs. They just wanted to see good baseball.”

From the on-field aspect to the off-field experience of exploring the foreign nation as a team, Lyon feels the trip did its job in making an impact on his players.

“I think, like I said, it gives them a better understanding of the world, as opposed to our little piece of the world here in West Michigan,” Lyons said. “It gave them a better understanding that there are other countries all over the world, and yet the people are the same. The people in Cuba are great, but everything we went through — playing games, having dinner with the Cuban people — they saw that these people are really the same as Americans.”

Due to financing, a return to Cuba is unlikely for GVSU, but Lyon has said he hopes the trip has made an impact that goes beyond his team looking forward.

“Some of the Cuban baseball officials and some of the newspaper people that we ran into asked us, ‘Are you coming back next year?’” Lyon said. “It’s probably once in a lifetime for us, but hopefully it might open up the doors for other teams to make that trip because it really is beneficial for the team, the university and the student athletes … We’re just glad we’ve had the chance to do it once.”

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