Baseball team shares Cuban memories

Laker baseball coach Steve Lyon said his team felt like they were playing in the Olympics when Grand Valley first took the field in Havana, Cuba.

Lyon was among panel participants who shared insight into the team’s trip to Cuba during a presentation February 21 in the Kirkhof Center. Grand Valley’s baseball team traveled to Cuba January 3-9 on a humanitarian mission with First Hand Aid, a Grand Rapids nonprofit organization that brings medical supplies and aid to Cuba.

“Before we played our first game, the Cubans found an American flag and we marched out along the baseline and the guys said it felt kind of like the Olympics,” Lyon said. “They played both teams’ national anthems and I think that was when our guys first knew they were really representing the U.S.”

Tim Selgo, director of athletics, said preparations for the trip began in 2009, taking nearly three years to approve paperwork and visas. The University of Alabama baseball team is the only other collegiate team to play baseball in Cuba.

Joining Lyon as panelists were President Thomas J. Haas (who served as first base coach for one game); Gordon Alderink, pitching coach and Honors College faculty member; and Steve Cron, an adjunct instructor in Latin American Studies who teaches a course on Latin American baseball.