With less than five weeks to go before the regular Major League Baseball season begins, hopes for a pair of exhibition games between the Orioles and Cuba's national team were still being hamstrung by a dispute between Havana and Washington over how to spend the proceeds.
The Clinton administration, which allowed the Orioles to visit and negotiate with Havana as part of a package of adjustments to its long-standing economic embargo against Cuba, wanted proceeds to go to a non-governmental charity in Cuba. But Havana wanted to send profits to Central American victims of Hurricane Mitch.
The main stumbling block has been that Cuba wants the money funnelled through its government health ministry, while US officials say they will reject any plan which would allow proceeds to go to the communist regime of Fidel Castro.
"A lot of it on both sides is public relations and I think it's a question of, how do you save face? How do both sides save face to make it work?" said a baseball source.
Angelos did not return phone calls to his law office in Baltimore and the Orioles had no comment.
Angelos came up with the idea of using baseball as a means of improving U.S.-Cuban relations three years ago. But not until January did he get the White House nod to proceed.
The two nations, bitter political adversaries, share a passion for baseball, which made its way to Cuba from the United States in the 19th century, before the US National League's founding in 1876.
If an agreement were reached, the Orioles would be the first Major League team to play in Cuba since the Brooklyn Dodgers visited in 1947.
More than a month after Angelos led a delegation to Cuba, the Orioles were still only tentatively set to play Cuba's national team in Havana on March 28, with a possible second game set for April 3 in Baltimore's Camden Yards stadium.
But there has been little progress toward final agreement in recent weeks. And with the Orioles scheduled for exhibition games with US teams on both Cuban dates, sources said Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig has asked for a final answer by the time spring training gets into full swing.
Reuters
