In Cuba, pair of Sox officially don't exist

Chicago Tribune ^ | October 22, 2005 | Gary Marx

[Nachum]

LAS MARTINAS, Cuba -- Thirty minutes before Jose Contreras throws the first pitch Saturday in Game 1 of the World Series, his older brother Humberto plans to ride a horse to a friend's wooden shack, where he will listen to the game clandestinely on a short-wave radio.

There, with the radio resting on a bed, a cigar in his mouth and a bottle of rum nearby, Humberto Contreras will hear the call of each pitch and picture his brother on the mound challenging Houston Astros hitters at U.S. Cellular Field.

"I'm always nervous, but I'm sure he's going to do well," said Contreras, 41, speaking from this impoverished farming community on Cuba's western tip. "It's tough that his family, his brother, can't watch the game."

Although the eyes of Chicago will be on Contreras as he starts Game 1, many Cuban baseball fans will be forced to go to extreme lengths to keep up with the White Sox as they pursue their first World Series title since 1917.

Though citizens of small countries take pride whenever one of their own makes it big on the world stage, Contreras and fellow White Sox pitcher Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez officially don't exist in their homeland. Newspapers ignore their triumphs, their images are not shown on state television, and President Fidel Castro and other Cuban leaders rarely mention their names except with scorn.

[endthematrix]

Who is Gary Marx?

[Chi-townChief]

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