Central PA pastor hosting Cuba's first ever Little League World Series team

[Judi Lynn]

by Tyler JeskiMon, August 14th 2023, 4:46 PM CDT


WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (WHP) — A Central Pennsylvania pastor will host Cuba's first ever Little League World Series team.

Reverend Gary Weaver from Lewisburg has been a LLWS for 24 years. He said the job is making sure the team is where they need to be, when they need to be there.

The host guides a team throughout the process. Making sure that they are ready for interviews, uniform fittings, and even responsible for doing laundry.

"We go from greeting them the first time on the bus, to putting them on the bus last time they leave, and everything in between," said Rev. Weaver.

More:
https://local21news.com/news/local/little-league-world-series-williamsport-cuba-little-league-team-reverend-gary-weaver-lewisburg-united-methodist-church-pastor-playing-host-for-24-years

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Bayamo Little League Becomes First Cuban Program to Qualify for Little League Baseball® World Series
March 5, 2023

- click for image -

https://tinyurl.com/3mdwyd9w

As the national champion, Bayamo Little League has qualified for direct entry into the 2023 Little League Baseball® World Series Tournament



With its 2-1 series win over Habana del Este Little League in the best-of-three country championship, Bayamo Little League has made history by becoming the first league from Cuba to qualify for the Little League Baseball® World Series.

“Since establishing our partnership with the Cuban Baseball Federation four years ago, we have continued to find ways to provide memorable experiences to children in 180 municipal communities all across the country, and we applaud Bayamo Little League on becoming Cuba’s first national champion with direct entry to the World Series,” said Stephen D. Keener, Little League® President and CEO. “We look forward to working with U.S. government authorities, our league volunteers, and Cuban officials to help bring the team to Williamsport and to be able to experience the memories, excitement, and joy that the World Series provides to children from all over the world each summer.”

Bayamo Little League finished the Cuban Tournament with an 8-2 record en-route to the championship title. In the best-of-three championship series, Habana del Este Little League picked up the opening game victory, 7-5, but Bayamo Little League was able to bounce back in the second game of the doubleheader to seal a 10-4 victory and force a game three for the championship on Sunday, March 5. After a back-and-forth championship finale that went into extra innings, it was Bayamo Little League who came out on top in the end, claiming a 6-2 victory with four runs in the top of the seventh to win the series.

Cuba’s direct entry to the World Series comes as part of the Little League Baseball World Series expansion that was announced in 2019 and went into effect in 2022. With its direct entry into the 2023 event, Cuba qualifies to become the 29th international country to earn a spot in the Little League Baseball World Series and will once again qualify for direct entry in 2024 as part of the international rotation.

. . .

The 2023 Little League Baseball World Series is scheduled for August 16-27. The official schedule for the tournament is available now with the first-round pairings set to be randomly drawn in June, all of which will be shared at LittleLeague.org/WorldSeries as it becomes available. To learn more about planning a visit to Williamsport for the World Series, go to LittleLeague.org/Visit and check back frequently as the event nears for additional information.

More:
https://www.littleleague.org/world-series/2023/llbws/news/bayamo-little-league-becomes-first-cuban-program-to-qualify-for-little-league-baseball-world-series/

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. Nice story, thanks for posting!

[Judi Lynn]

7. Thank you, OAITW r.2.0, for taking the time.

[Marcus IM]

2. Those kids look like evildoer communists plotting the overthrow of America.

And what more subversive a way for Cuba to attract communist American sympathizers than with baseball!

If communists like baseball, then we must ban it now ... think of the children111!!!!111!!!111

[Judi Lynn]

4. Whoooo! The images of Che and Fidel practising their golf game are so scary!

One can hardly imagine what they were plotting out there!

[Judi Lynn]

5. "Think of the children!" I just remembered the whopper going around Miami when Elian Gonzalez

was taken hostage by his great grand-uncle, Lazaro González and all the Cuban American exiles who crowded around his house 24/7 for months. They started gibbering that the reason Fidel Castro was concerned, as Cuba's President, about the child of a Cuban citizen, Juan Manuel González, being held against the will of the father in the US, was because Fidel Castro was a Secret Satanist who eats children!

I'm sure you remember NewsMax, the certifiably very sick right-wing "news" outlet, rented the house next door to the George town house of the influential couple who invited Elián González, his family, and his father, Juan Manuel's attorney, Gregory Craig to dinner one evening, so they could try to photograph the entire event. They published a photo of a garden gnome placed beside an air conditioner unit on the side of the house, and claimed it was a satanic character which proved the hosts were also members of the Satanist cult!

So that odd item made the rounds repeatedly that Fidel Castro wanted Elián González in Cuba, because he probably planned to gobble him all gone, eventually! NewsMax agreed!

So, conservatives insist liberals and progressives are satanists who want to eat and traffic children, yet think it's just fine if their church youth leaders, and assorted winger preachers bugger the daylights out of real children, and their beloved idol, Donald Trump publicly expressed horny thoughts even about his own daughter when she was very young! That's A-OK with them.

Oh, yeah, who can forget the constant gibberish of needing to protect the children from Bill Clinton and his eternal search for B.J.'s. Oh, the humanity!

Thank goodness little Elián managed to get to adulthood without Fidel Castro eating him all gone!

[Marcus IM]

6. After dealing with the Miamicubano political "logic", one is rather used to tRumpsters.

Every accusation was/is a confession.

Check out the movie The Good Sheperd. Some interesting Cuba/CIA backchannel related stuff.

[Judi Lynn]

8. True! It's not such a surprise he feels popular with them! It was a real jolt seeing them in action!

Was just thinking earlier they no longer get to look forward to hopping in their cars and tearing up and down the streets celebrating each time they believe Fidel Castro has died! That was amazing. So many whooped it up so many times in error before he really did join the Choir Invisible.


















(I just spotted that lunatic who did stop the vote in Miami-Dade during the Gore-Bush 2000 election, behind "Cuba" in the sign)

[Judi Lynn]

3. Cuba's first Little League World Series team has family ties to MLB's Gurriel brothers

Cesar Brioso, USA TODAY
Mon, August 14, 2023 at 6:24 a.m. CDT·7 min read

In the scene, Luis Gurriel Sr. gets choked up when he explains his one wish. "I told my wife once, 'I want to be alive to see my son play on a Cuban national team,' " he says in the documentary "Little League Dreams," which premieres Monday. "Oh, boy, he's only 12 years old and he already gave me that joy."

That’s because Luis Sr.’s son will be playing on a team representing Cuba for the first time in the 76-year history of the Little League World Series. Luis Gurriel Jr. pitches for Bayamo Little League, which won the Cuban tournament in March to qualify for the Little League World Series, which begins Aug. 16 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

And if their last name sounds familiar it's because father and son are related to Miami Marlins first baseman Yuli Gurriel and Arizona Diamondbacks left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. Luis Sr. is the major-league players’ uncle. Luis Jr. is their cousin. Yuli Gurriel, who hasn't seen his uncle and cousin since before he left Cuba in 2016, first learned last week that his cousin would be playing in the LLWS.

“I was very happy. The chance he’s getting to play here in the Little League World Series is very important," Yuli Gurriel said in recorded comments provided by the Marlins to USA TODAY Sports. "It’s something big because it’s the first time a team from Cuba is participating in the Little League World Series. … It’s a big step forward. In the past, nobody would have thought this would happen and thank God it did and with the presence of my cousin, it’s something very beautiful."

- click for image -

https://tinyurl.com/5dacy754

Luis Gurriel Jr. will be pitching for Bayamo in the 2023 Little League World Series, the first time Cuba will be represented in the 76-year history of the tournament.

More:
https://ca.movies.yahoo.com/movies/cubas-first-little-league-world-112409755.html