The Isla de la Juventud ball team that participates in 63 National Baseball Series (SNB) was forced to spend the night in the lobby of a hotel in the city of Holguin after arriving after an exhausting trip of almost 24 hours to the hotel facility they were assigned.
Despite the exhaustion of the players, staff The forest -of the chain pasture- They argued that they could not enter (do check-in) until 12 noon the next day.
“This photo corresponds to the lobby of the hotel where they are staying in Holguín, after an extensive trip from the Island. They left this Sunday at 7:00 a.m. of pine lands and arrived at The City of Los Parques at 3:20 this morning. At the El Bosque hotel they were told that check-in was at 12:00 noon. The solution? There it is, sleeping in the lobby,” journalist Reynier Batista denounced on Facebook.
The source shared a photo in which the players are seen settled in the hotel lobby trying to rest.
The incident has caused intense controversy on social networks in recent hours. The publication has so far accumulated more than 700 comments and has been reproduced several times on other profiles.
“Apologies to all the members of the Island team, it is a shame that these things happen in our provinces, that those responsible for this fact accept their mistake and provide a response”wrote the group "We are the puppies of Holguín."
Hours later, the same source detailed that the response given at a press conference this Monday by Juan Reynaldo Pérez Pardo, president of the Cuban Baseball and Softball Federation, was that the players arrived at the place “much earlier than expected, and the hotel was still not in a position to accommodate them due to no room availability.”
They also indicated that The official entry time for teams to hotels on Mondays is 4 p.m., although they are accommodated earlier if there is availability.
In this case the Pirates had left on Sunday, March 31 on the ferry The Perseverance heading to Batabanó at 7 a.m. They arrived at 1:00 p.m. and at 3:00 p.m. They left by road towards Holguín on a certainly exhausting day.
“First of all, I think we have to review the first press conference where they talked about Monday, which was for transfer and rest, and a point was also touched on about training and more, which completely contradicts the entry time to the hotels (4 :00 p.m.)”, the Por la Goma Facebook profile noted in an article on the subject.
The same source noted that the management of the La Isla team should hold the Sports Directorate of that special municipality accountable, since they are the ones who should - according to the National Commission - carry out the relevant coordination when there are possible arrivals before the established time.
“Thirdly, I believe that these things should and have to be avoided and furthermore, there should be someone responsible to answer for this bad night and this total lack of respect for the athletes, and not leave it as if nothing had happened. I hope this does not happen again with any team, because it is simply very unpleasant for the athlete and all the team's staff," he concluded.
In the hundreds of comments posted online in recent hours, numerous Internet users have agreed that incidents like these are why Cuban athletes, and baseball players in particular, They increasingly choose to leave the country in search of better conditions.
Beyond the poor coordination - which apparently would be the responsibility of the local sports authorities of the Isle of Youth - many accuse the hotel staff of a lack of empathy, as many question whether the hotel facility was at its maximum capacity. ability.
"If there were three rooms we had to accommodate them there in the meantime and not give this spectacle", pointed out an indignant fan.
Others, however, exonerate the hotel entity of what happened and remember that the opening hours check-in They must be established.
National Baseball Series in crisis
At the beginning of February the Cuban government announced the suspension of all ongoing sporting events due to "low fuel availability", which left several tournaments on pause, including the SNB.
However, the baseball directors on the island toured the country's provinces and gave the flag to the participating teams, giving the green light to the sporting event, which began on March 10 but under the premise that the Games must be played during the day to reduce electricity consumption in stadiums.
The incident with the Isla de la Juventud players is not the first in the current National Series; in recent days it was news that the team Lumberjacks of Las Tunas remained stranded in Havana due to lack of transportation, after playing a series of matches in western Cuba
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