HAVANA: The Olympic Baseball Qualifying tournament of 2006 finally started with a opening ceremony and ...obviously rain!  Rain delays are pretty common in the Caribbean.  Ernesto is bearing down on us but appears to be pushing away from Havana. (Happens to be the name of our driver).  So far we have played all the games.. Actually a great day of weather today.  Tomorrow will be shaky but that's why there are make up days in the schedule! There isn't a lot of concern from the locals... who have seen there fair share of hurricanes over the years.  Because Ernesto is coming over the mountains, it will slow down quite a bit according to head groundskeeper Pedro Almenares. He is 80 years old and works as hard as anyone...so I believe him!

Fortunately we had materials on  hand this week an a great crew to get all of the competition  fields in shape.  There is only one infield cover at the stadiums and it needs some help...Probably a few hundred holes. The local crew is planning to patch them.   Many repairs were made which included reconstruction of all mounds and bullpens with clay from Canada.

Also general sodding and grading improvements were completed. 

USA is 3-0 after a tough fight with Brazil yesterday...Cuba is also 3-0.  You can actually log into the www.IBAF.ch  website and check out the game info.   

The fields are coming around for the 2006 Olympic qualifier in Havana Cuba which starts this Friday.  With great support from all involved the final pieces are falling into place. Earlier last week we were able to watch the game at left... USA National team playing Taiwan in the Final Gold Medal Game. USA went on to win 18-9 at Latino Americana Stadium.  A large group from the American Interest Section in Havana, attended the game which had a real impact on the final results.

There is still a lot of work to be done but the heart and passion of the Cuban people for the game of baseball is un-matched around the baseball world.  Kids playing stick-ball on the streets, fields in poor condition and resources to improve them being extremely scarce, makes it tough to understand how they have become such a baseball powerhouse. 

The baseball federation has our group providing oversight and field maintenance education before and during the tournament at all three venues which include  Nelson Fernandez Stadium, Changa and Latino Americana.  With our driver and guide we travel in around Cuba daily to check on each field's developments, renovations, etc. After some delays,  of materials arriving out of the port to begin the renovations,  it appears the only thing that can slow the progress is the rain.. and since it is the tropics rain is  everyday in the afternoon. 

Traveling to Cuba is not an easy task for Americans.  There is a series of checks and reviews to validate an official license granted by the Department of Treasury.  We have a pretty good size staff including Chad Olsen, Darrell lemmer, Budgie Clark, Erik Frye, Brian Fitzpatrick, Rick Newville and myself. We are traveling to an from Cuba in shifts. 

I will be blogging from Havana over the next few weeks about the field and turf conditons in the country as well as the tournament.  With only two spots available in this 12- team tournament to make it to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, I am sure the competition will be exciting.