Outstanding Child Baseball Player Marginalized Because he is the Son of Dissidents

Outstanding Child Baseball Player Marginalized Because he is the Son of
Dissidents / Michel Iroy Rodriguez
Posted on August 29, 2013

HAVANA, Cuba, August 28, 2013, Michel Iroy Rodriguez / www.cubanet.org.-
The ballplayer Jonathan Machado Tarrago, nicknamed Suzuki, age 14, who
was stolen base leader in games held in Taipei, China in July 2011, will
not be allowed to participate in the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto,
Canada, as the son of a regime opponent. It is expected that he will
also be suspended from the World Cup to be held in Mexico next year.

Yonatan Tarrago Machado was suspended from participating in games by
State Security, because he is the son of Antonio Machado Ramirez, a
political opponent of the regime.
His mother, Ana Maria Tarrago Ruiz, a resident of 80th Street between
49th and 51st, in the Havana municipality of Playa, says she feels hurt
and that the measure is stupid. "They want to destroy the future of my
son because of our political position," she said.

Her son has played baseball since he was 5. When he was 8 he was
eligible to play in the age 9-10 category, with a 300 batting average.
He was batting above 300 in his first year in the age 11-12 category.
The following year, when he joined the City of Havana team, he was
already batting 489, but he was not allowed to be on the Cuba team.
After several efforts by his coach, Jorge Mazorra, he joined the team to
travel to Taipei, China, where he led with 13 stolen bases and a 615
average. Even then, his speed from home to first base of 7.7 seconds,
and he had 22 hits and more than 24 stolen bases.

In 2012 he was again chosen by the Cuban baseball commissioner, who told
his parents that due to his high performance in the leadoff spot he
would be taken to the Pan American Games in 2015.

When Machado Tarrago was suspended from the Pan American Games, the
teenager assigned to his place had much lower stats: 13 hits and 3
stolen bases.

"The Cuban government feels it has the power to destroy the future of
any young person. It mistreats, humiliates and destroys whomever it
pleases. It believes it is the owner of all Cubans, entitled to decide
who will become something and who will not. And then they complain that
young people want to leave Cuba. It's not just because of economic
problems that they go," said Ana Maria Tarrago, the mother of this
promising baseball player.

From Cubanet

29 August 2013

Source: "Outstanding Child Baseball Player Marginalized Because he is
the Son of Dissidents / Michel Iroy Rodriguez | Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/outstanding-child-baseball-player-marginalized-because-he-is-the-son-of-dissidents-michel-iroy-rodriguez/