When the Orioles take on an all-star team of Cuban players in Havana on Sunday, some of the underprivileged pupils from Baltimore's St. Ignatius Loyola Academy may be there to cheer them on.
The boys from St. Ignatius are among those invited by Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos last week to fly to Cuba to watch the first major-league baseball game there since 1959.
But to take advantage of the invitation, the school has just three days to raise the money to send the pupils by chartered plane and get expedited passports for the youngsters.
"It's a long shot. That's what we've been told," said the Rev. William J. Watters, pastor of St. Ignatius Roman Catholic Church and president and founder of the academy for inner-city boys, where every pupil is on a full scholarship.
After getting last-minute federal approval Friday to take his team to Cuba, Angelos put out the word to schools and recreation leagues in the Baltimore-Washington area that he would provide a plane for 100 youths and up to 50 chaperons.
Organizers scrambled during the weekend to finalize plans for the Cuba trip. The plane is scheduled to leave Baltimore-Washington International Airport on Thursday morning and return next Monday.
As of yesterday, 50 youths had been signed up by parents who could afford the $750 expense for each young traveler.
Organizers are saving the rest of the seats for a more diverse group of youths who might have trouble affording even a ticket to an Orioles home game. Angelos has pledged $12,500 to help defray the cost.
"We wanted to get more representation that reflected all of the Baltimore-D.C. area," said Scott Armstrong, a Washington journalist who suggested the Cuba game to his friend Angelos four years ago.
The Orioles will be the first major-league baseball club to play in Cuba in 40 years. The Cincinnati Reds and Los Angeles Dodgers played exhibition games in Cuba in March 1959.
Angelos, who has been advocating a goodwill exhibition series with the Cuban national team since 1996, began negotiating the home-and-home series in January. The Orioles will play host to the Cuban national team at Camden Yards on May 3.
'Out of steam'
Armstrong said he has spent so much time getting federal approval for the team to go to Cuba, which has been the target of U.S. trade sanctions since 1961, that it left him no time to raise money for underprivileged students who want to go.
"I've run out of steam," Armstrong said. And time. He leaves for Cuba today and will have to leave fund raising to the schools and groups that work with disadvantaged children. If they get the money in time, and there are seats left on the plane, they're in.
Armstrong contacted agencies such as Catholic Relief Services to pitch the idea of having kids fly to Cuba to watch the Orioles -- and maybe play a few sandlot games with Cuban youngsters.
The idea to send young athletes was part of the Orioles-Cuba game from the start, Armstrong said.
"The warmth of kids would melt the Cold War, because they just do it -- they get out there and play," he said. "They'll eat American hot dogs and Cuban ice cream."
When the Cuban team comes to Baltimore, Armstrong said, some of the children the Americans meet there could come for a return visit.
"Kids get along with kids all the time," Armstrong said. "Baseball is the easiest of games. Three strikes, four balls, three outs for each side, nine innings. Whoever scores the most runs wins the game. It has nothing to do with politics."
Catholic Relief Services contacted St. Ignatius, a Jesuit school founded by Watters six years ago, late last week.
The school's mission is to give economically disadvantaged boys the same kind of middle-school education as the wealthier pupils who apply to private prep schools. All 64 of its pupils are on full $6,000-a-year scholarships.
This year, all of St. Ignatius' eighth-graders have received scholarships to private college prep schools such as Loyola Blakefield, Gilman, Friends and McDonogh for the fall.
As St. Ignatius' pupils return this morning from a week of spring break, Watters will be dialing prospective donors to help send a lucky few to Havana.
He has three days to find at least $2,500 to send two students and Headmaster Jeff Sindler, and maybe a few more if he can raise the money.
Watters, who cannot go because he is scheduled to officiate at a wedding Saturday, was optimistic about raising the money. He raises more than $384,000 a year for scholarships.
The baseball game has encountered opposition from some human rights activists who fear it will promote Cuban President Fidel Castro's regime.
People to people
Watters said his success in raising money will depend on calling people who will see it as he does -- a people-to-people exchange.
"It will depend on where a person finds himself or herself in terms of the Cuban issue," Watters said. "It depends on the person, and how much the person has in the bank."
Between the fund-raising obstacles and the political controversy, Watters said he isn't taking anything for granted until the plane takes off on Thursday.
But long shots have not stopped him before, such as when he decided in 1991 to start the school and had classes in session two years later.
A Jesuit with missionary experience in Africa whose parishioners are active in international social issues, Watters is all for the trip.
"It's about time we opened negotiations with Cuba -- people to people. It's the only way," he said. The United States has reached out to China, North Korea and Vietnam, he said. "Why can't we do it with our neighbors in Cuba?"
Castro, he noted, was educated at the elite Belen Jesuit Preparatory School in Havana. After Castro came to power in 1959, he closed the school, which later reopened in Miami.
Pub Date: 3/22/99