Pete Caliendo (left) and Cuba coach Primitivo Diaz at the World Baseball Classic Tokyo Japan

US Coach Makes History in Cuba:

First US coach prior to or after the revolution to travel to Cuba and help train coaches around the country.

By Peter Caliendo

SG Baseball/Caliendo Sports International

This journey was not a short one.

At the age of 14, I read an ad in Baseball Digest magazine about Mickey Owen Baseball School in Miller, Mo. I was so interested I asked my parents if I could attend and, in 1975, I became a student at the world-famous school.

At first though, after seeing the camp, I told my parents I did not want to stay, but my hard-working Italian parents would have none of that. They had paid for the camp, so I was attending. They were old school “You make a commitment, you follow through with it!”

The rest was history for during my 10 years there, I served as a camp counsellor, coach and later director of instructions for the school. While there, I was taken under the wing of my life-long mentor, Dick Birmingham, who helped steer me into a career of helping coaches all over the world.

Birmingham introduced me to coaches from all over the USA and invited me to a coach on his staff on the first USA Baseball 16U national team pilot program which competed in the Pan Am games in Brazil. Fast Forward: In the years since,I have been a USA Baseball National Team coach and a staff member with an Independent pro team that competed in the 1999 Intercontinental Cup, a trial event for the 2000 Olympics. I’ve stayed in the game long enough, caught some breaks, had fantastic mentors along the way and travelled to Cuba nine times for baseball since 2007. But my 2018 trip was the one in which I made history.

The 2018 season was not my first time seeing Cuban ball or getting to know Cuban coaches, officials and players. I had been with the World Baseball Softball Confederation for over 20 years (Formerly the IBAF), on their Tournament Committee which governs the sport worldwide and all international competitions.

This is where I began to forge a friendship and trust with the Cuban Federations officials. During my times working all the events I met many coaches, officials and former players which allowed me to build a close relationship with many.

Relationships from the ‘80s lead to alliances in 2018. I was selected by USA Baseball on its very first Envoy coaches’ program to go to Italy. My placement situated me in the beautiful mountain top city of Montefiascone about 1 1/2 hours from Rome. My roomie during the stay was Cuban coach Primitivo Diaz, who had been in the country the whole summer training the team.

I remember one of the delegates came to me to ask for a special favor, “Would I mind staying in the same apartment as the Cuban coach?” Officials were worried I would say ‘no’ because of the chilling Cuban/American relationships. Of course that was nonsense and I said ‘no problem’ and the rest is history.

Cuba coach Primitivo Diaz, left, and Caliendo at the Intercontinental Cup Australia.

We became great friends after a few drinks. Every night Primitivo would cook chicken and rice and we had a fantastic time. I learned so much from Primitivo Diaz about Cuba and baseball.

Then at 1999 Intercontinental Cup in Australia, Primitivo was a coach on the Cuban national team and I was with the USA Team that was competing. It was a great reunion! And even more recently, during the World Baseball Classic, our paths crossed again when I was working as a Technical Committee Member and Diaz was the third base coach for his national team.

The serendipitous encounters with Diaz were not the only time my movements collided with the Cubans. In 1987 in Parma, Italy at the World Cup, the Cuban team featured legendary grandes del beisbol like Orestes Kindelán (who used an aluminum bat to homer off the 400 level during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta), Antonio Pacheco, Omar Linares (who Pat Gillick once called the best player not in the majors) and Victor Mesa facing a future MLB star-studded cast.

I was sitting behind home plate in a filled-to-capacity stadium. Jim Abbott was on the mound and the USA was winning 3-0 in the ninth. A ground ball was hit to Robin Ventura at third, who bobbled the ball, threw off line to first baseman Tino Martinez who had to come off the bag to try to tag the runner. The umpire called him safe and, of course, all hell broke loose, as Team USA manager Skip Bertman and USA coach Ron Polk argued loudly.

The game was delayed. Once it resumed Abbott no longer was 93-94 MPH at the knees. He was missing up: a walk, homer, relief pitcher and the Cubans won 4-3.

Also, in the last seven years, I have, with my company Caliendo Sports International, started taking younger teams/players to Cuba for competing and training along Cuban players. This was for a chance for the average player to experience international competition without making the national team.

My first time ever in Havana, Cuba was in 2007 for the IBAF (Now the WBSC) Olympic Qualifier.

My first day there I was at the legendary Intercontinental Hotel, one of the most historical hotels in Cuba. This is where Presidents and the wealthy stayed - even Al Capone spent time there - but, perhaps as an omen, upon my arrival the electricity went out in the hotel and that part of Havana, so I decided to venture out and see the old city.

I kept walking farther into the area were the real Cuban people lived. There were a lot of very old buildings, not well maintained and I had the chance to meet some every day people. I was impressed. What great friendly people they were, not at all what I had expected after hearing so many false stories about the nation.

After being there 12 days, I was convinced it was one of the safest places in the world even though the police would not allow Cuban people to talk to tourists. My Cuban friends were not allowed to come to a restaurant with me or even meet me in the hotel restaurant. They could only meet me in the lobby where, I gathered, we could be more easily watched by authorities. When I returned three years later this had all changed.

In 2016, Jesus Barroso, director of coaches for the Cuban federation, asked me to speak at their Afide Conference, a sports conference which included all sports. Accompanied by a very good friend and ISG advisory committee member Van Schley, we spoke to many coaches, athletic trainers, executives about developing young players and how to begin to use technology to benefit the game.

Caliendo and famed closer Pedro Lazo from Cuba.

At that conference there were top coaches and former players like top closer Pedro Lazo in attendance. They also took the time to discuss the game and tell stories, and Lazo even made a phone call to Primitivo Diaz in Pinar Del Rio so I could say hi to my good friend.

With ISG Baseball’s help, I was invited back for a second time to a biennial sports conference for all sports in Latin America.

The following year, ISG Baseball sent over former Los Angles Dodgers coach and player Reggie Smith, top vision training expert Ryan Harrison from Slow the Game Down and top Arizona Diamondback’s scout Chris Carminucci to speak at the Afide conference.

In 2017 on an invite from the Cuban Federation and in co-operation with ISG, I headed, along with my great friend Ed Diaz, an extremely successful Mexican League coach, to Havana to continue the work that had begun before. During that time, they expanded their network in the island nation further visiting with Victor Mesa - legendary Cuban who played alongside Omar Linares - at his beautiful Havana hacienda to catch up, talk ball and have some great Cuban coffee. Mesa at that time was managing the Industriales team in the Cuban pro league and invited

I visited their training camp, watched their practice and even addressed the team afterwards. It was quite an honour considering that the Industriales were the Yankees of Cuban baseball!

In 2018, I made history in Cuba by receiving a special invite from the Cuban Federation to visit Cuba representing ISG Baseball/Caliendo Sports International. We would travel for 10 days all over Cuba with Jesus Barroso and host two-day coaches training programs across the island. This event saw us travel by van with two drivers. We travelled four hours to one region, then 11 hours to another and 10 to another finally coming back to Havana. The first couple of days, Havana coach Ed Diaz a top American/Dominican coach, and a great friend, accompanied me and he was outstanding, speaking Spanish.

During our travel, we would stop at local restaurants, rest stops, eat, visit and get going again. But never forgetting to have a good Cuban coffee. The days consisted of arriving in a city normally in the evening, checking into our hotel and getting a good night sleep. I felt bad that I was in one hotel and the two Cuban coaches had to stay in another. But they did get together in the evenings for a meal, Cuban Rum, cigar and talks.

The next morning it was off to the sports complex where anywhere from 50 to 90 coaches would be in attendance. The morning course would consist of philosophy, video work, bio mechanics instructions, questions and answer, group participation and some lectures. I spoke fluent Italian. Dealing in Spanish many times I would do my best and if things needed to be translated then coach Barroso would do the translation.

The Cuban coaches were a lot of fun to be around but also very serious about their learning. Good thing a lot of the Cuban coaches understood Italian and coach Barroso spoke English and Italian. Then we would have lunch as a group at the complex, but they normally would take me and a few Cuban coaches to another area for a special meal. This lasted a couple hours. What a way to get to know each other. Not only did we share baseball stories but our own personal life experience.

I learned so much from the Cuban coaches. One stop we ran into top Cuban catcher Ariel Pestano -- who could have easily played in the majors. We grabbed lunch together talked catching, life experiences. We even discussed the 2007 Olympic Qualifier in Havana where the USA team beat Cuba for the first time in 26 years to qualify for the Olympics.

I was there and saw Pestano about the sixth inning, with Cuba down 6-3 to the USA team managed by Davey Johnson, Pestano called time and signalled to the plate umpire that the second base umpire (a Canadian) on the outfield side of second base was signalling signs to the American hitters, Pestano was famous for always trying to change the pace of the game and this was another of his tactics, this time it did not work and the USA went on to win the Gold.

During our travel, I had the honour of interviewing, during one of our long 10-to-12 hour rides, Jesus Barroso for my Podcast show called, Baseball Outside the Box

They discussed many things about Cuban baseball. One very important thing was that it is very well organized. Because of the system they have set up, they have produced so many top players and many have played in the majors. Currently there have been over 500 players which have left in the last 20 years and this has hurt Cuban ball. But more shocking was what Jesus told me next. When I asked him how many ball players of all ages there are in Cuba? I expected out of a country of 11 million at least one million players.

No, not even close, at their best estimate 60,000 players. Amazing, it is a great story on how they have been competing and winning for many years internationally with only 60,000 players of all ages. They certainly lack equipment at many levels of the game, even baseballs but they have a passion for the game and that is very hard to instill in players.

It’s not about getting off the island, it’s a real cultural passion for playing the game. The reasons they are so good at the development of the game is that they are always looking for the edge, the one thing to get better, the Federation is always searching the internet for better ways to train players. They share that information with coaches across the country because very few people are allowed to have internet in their homes in Cuba. Cuban people can buy internet cards to use in certain outdoor locations on their phones for internet, but none have internet at home unless you’re a government official.

Lately the Cuban Government is giving out some home internet boxes but few people get them. One area they are very strong in, is coaches training, in which in the last 20 years they have held over 421 coaching programs to better their coaches. To take what they learned on the internet, emails, videos and train their coaches to become better.

They try and make sure they are training their coaches the same ways so that the players are trained equally and are not confused by different ideas or techniques. This also makes it much easier when they put their national teams together. Also, Cuban baseball is a leader in many ways. Over 20 years ago, they were the first ones to develop the Academy concept, which major league clubs have implemented around the world.

The Cubans took the best players/athletes from the ages 12-18 and placed them in 16 academies across the country where these players eat, sleep and train for baseball. They go to school there, practice, eat together, play games and then hopefully are picked for their regional or national team.

To show how advanced the Cubans have been in the game they had invented a game called Baseball 5, which is now been implemented worldwide by the WBSC to help grow the game. It’s a more fun game, faster, smaller field, five players against five, no bat, you bounce the ball and hit it with your hand. Rules can be found on the web site.

An area which always amazed me, is how well the Cubans competed internationally at all levels. Yes, in the old days the Cubans were well experienced men playing against college kids in the USA. But we had the numbers in the US, 26 million amateur players, they had 60,000. I always thought in order to compete at the highest level and even against some major league teams, their pro league teams in Cuba has to be extremely competitive. After seeing their pro league before they lost so many players, I understood how they could compete around the world.

Cuban players have some of the best instincts I have ever seen. One reason is, in Cuba because of the weather they are able to play games all year round. But more amazing and what makes them so good (we all know the science behind this theory), they practice more then they play. That’s something we are getting away from in the USA and if we do not change course it will hurt the future development of our players.

When the Cuban coaches run practices, they are strict, expect hard work, concentration and competition. They also are always trying to create that real game situation for all aspects of the game so that when it happens in the game, they do not have to think before they do it, they react to the situation they have been through over and over under pressure. In the nine times being in Cuba along with the coaches, officials and people, that is at the top of my most memorable times.

The game has no barriers in life and you can learn a lot from people all over the world. I am grateful to learn a lot from my friends in Cuba. I would have never imagined that 40 plus years after those days in the sweltering heat of Miller, Mo., I would be the only US baseball coach prior to or after the Cuban Revolution to travel to that island to help coaches.

During my time in Cuba, I travelled alongside the director of coaches for the Cuban Federation to help train coaches. When I first got into coaching, I was just trying to learn, survive, figure out what I wanted to do in coaching. Cuba was never on my mind.

It’s great to travel the world to see how over 120 countries have a passion for this great game. I look forward in returning to Cuba soon after this Pandemic is over or controlled to see all my friends around Cuba. Until then, a shout out to all my friends around the world.

Yours for Better Baseball & Softball

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