ITPH: Castro as Baseball Player

[John Fredrick Parker]

So what's the deal with this? There are stories of Castro getting offers from the New York Giants, getting scouted by the Philadelphia Phillies, and apparently getting considered by the Washington Senators or the New York Yankees. Snopes says it's all bull, Cracked gives credence to some of them, others seem to say that just the Phillies story is true.

Obviously, any of these would have some kind of AH potential, but they'd have to be true first, and that seems to be a contentious point. Anybody here want to weigh in?

[Just Leo]

I'd give more credence to the Cincinatti RedLegs, due to his having done tryouts with the Sugar Kings, C and 1B, throws right, switch-hitter. Too bad. He could have been a contender if it wasn't for Oscar Sierra.

[The Vulture]

Your first mistake is going on Cracked.

[d32123]

This is ASB because Castro was only talented enough to play intramural level baseball in college. The idea that he was given a tryout for a major league team is a myth.

[Dan1988]

Originally Posted by d32123

This is ASB because Castro was only talented enough to play intramural level baseball in college. The idea that he was given a tryout for a major league team is a myth.

So, here's a POD - what if Castro was actually good enough to be noticed by the major leagues? How would major-league baseball change with the including of Fidel?

[d32123]

Originally Posted by Dan1988

So, here's a POD - what if Castro was actually good enough to be noticed by the major leagues? How would major-league baseball change with the including of Fidel?

Then he'd just be just another baseball player. You'd need to give more specifics as to just how good he is, what team he plays for, and such before it's really possible to respond to this from a baseball perspective.

As for what changes we'd see in Cuba, that place was just ripe for revolution. If not Castro, someone else leads it.

[LostCosmonaut]

However, without Castro, is there a possibility that the initial revolution might not have been successful? Or might it have been delayed until sometime later, such as the mid-late 60s?

[TNF]

The situation in Cuba probably still leads to a revolt against Batista, but I don't know how strong-armed the opposition is going to be without a unifying figure or even with a different unifying figure. The communist regime in Cuba might last ten minutes or until today. It all just depends on who comes to power, and even if they ally with the Soviets. If they're just a run-of-the-mill non-aligned socialist state, then they won't get much trouble from the United States, so long as they allow the U.S. to continue operations there. If not, well...a U.S. approved government will probably come back into being fairly quickly, unless the Cubans hitch their wagon to the Soviets very quickly.

Unless of course the non-Castro leadership hooks up with the Chinese, which could provide for a very interesting set of developments, especially if detente comes around like it did IOTL.