Then there is pride. Prior to El Duque, even nicknames were banned in Cuban baseball because the comrades thought it placed too much emphasis on the individual instead of the team. The young defectors want to make a name for themselves by taking on the McGwires. Nichols claims players defect most often because times are hard in Cuba. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba s economy has suffered and the U.S. economic embargo prohibits almost all financial transactions between people and entities in the two countries.
Travel is limited by both sides.
He also can repatriate his earnings after taxes, of course, to his homeland and freely travel there in the off-season. However, this is not true for Cuban players. On the other hand, no Cuban citizen may earn money in this country without a U.S. Treasury license, and only small sums of family remittances may be sent back to Cuba by those who are no longer Cuban citizens. So, says Nichols, the only way a Cuban baseball player can play in the United States is to defect. Because of the embargo, Cuban players can t do what Sammy Sosa and many other foreign nationals do that is, retain their foreign citizenship and repatriate their earnings.