A Breakthrough: First Castro Regime-Approved Cuban Player Debuts in Can-Am League

The Can-Am League appears to have pulled off a major feat any professional league would like to duplicate.

Culminating an effort that started about five years ago, the league’s Quebec Capitales have the first Cuban Government-sanctioned imported player since the Fidel Castro regime started decades ago.  More Cubans could be allowed to compete in the league next year when Ottawa starts play and three of the five franchises will be in Canada.

“(Quebec President) Michel Laplante made more than one trip to Cuba, the last one for four or five days” to work out details for Yuniesky Gurriel to join the team, League Commissioner Miles Wolff informed us Thursday morning.

Gurriel, part of the highly-respected Cuban family that came to prominence on the island when his father was a star player and includes younger brother Yuliesky, now playing in Japan, started in right field and batted ninth in the Capitales’ 10-3 victory over the New Jersey Jackals in his debut Wednesday.  Although 32 and probably not a major league prospect, the slender Yuniesky went 2-for-4 with an RBI despite obvious nervousness and drew supportive applause from the Stade de Quebec crowd of 3,251 since the fans had been anticipating the debut through 10 days of buildup in the French-language Quebec newspapers.

“While it almost happened a couple of years ago, it was sort of a quick thing,” Wolff explained, saying Laplante only had about three days of notice ahead of the trip.  Laplante took Spanish-speaking catcher Josue Peley, who was on the disabled list, with him to help out.  Ironically, Peley went 4-for-4 with a homer and two runs batted in on Wednesday.  “If this goes well we hope to see three or four players (under a similar agreement) come into the league next year,” the commissioner said.

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Second Chance Paying Off for John Holdzkom

John Holdzkom is a giant of a man at 6-foot-9, 240 pounds, so if he ever stands on a major league pitcher’s mound he will be easy to remember, even before he unleashes one of his 95 mile per hour or better fastballs.

The major leagues seemed like a long shot as recently as early this season when the 26-year-old native Californian was still working out of the Amarillo (TX) Sox bullpenin American Association games, but it appears very likely to happen at some point for the right-hander now that his appearances come in relief for the Indianapolis Indians, Pittsburgh’s top farm club.

“When I think about where I started (2014), it is pretty cool” to be one step from the major leagues today, he told me by telephone while waiting for a midweek day game to start this week.  “I’m thankful I was able to learn my lesson” from his professional start at the age of 18 when, by his admission in previous media reports, he let the bonus money slip away through various forms of teen-aged frivolity.

Hit Streak Ends, All-Star Game Next for Van Stratten

While Nick Van Stratten fell one game shy of equalling the American Association consecutive-game hit record (34, Stephen Douglas, 2011), the exploits of the Laredo, TX outfielder will make him one of the marked men when the All-Star Game is played in Winnipeg next Tuesday night along with South Division teammate Travis Denker since the second baseman easily leads the league in both home runs (20) and RBI (64).

Van Stratten’s 33-game hit streak is believed to be the fourth longest in modern-day Independent Baseball, trailing the 40-game streak of Jason James of Rockford, IL (Frontier League) in 2009, Maikel Jova’s 37-game streak for San Rafael, CA (North American League) in 2012 and Douglas’s mark when he was with El Paso and Grand Prairie, TX.

(This is an excerpt from the column Bob Wirz writes on Independent Baseball.  Thirty-six columns are planned during 2014.  Fans may subscribe at newly-reduced rates at www.WirzandAssociates.com, enjoy added stories on the blog www.IndyBaseballChatter.com, or comment to RWirz@aol.com.  The authorhas 16 years of major league baseball public relations experience with Kansas City and as spokesman for two Commissioners and lives in Stratford, CT.)