Are the Times A'Changin? El Duque Thinks So

There was a time when Cuban athletes who defected were treated as traitors ... stricken from the Cuban media as if they didn't exist. So it was surprising that a documentary produced in 2004, and featured then Yankees and current Mets pitcher Orlando Hernandez, found it's way on to state run Cuban television four years later. It was originally censored due to the interviews with defectors such as Hernandez, Kendry Morales, and Rene Arocha, the first Cuban defector to play for a major league team.

I'm an Industrialista. I am not a traitor to the Industriales," Hernandez said in the documentary "Fuera de Liga" (Outstanding) by Ian Padron.

"I've had the opportunity to play for the two best teams in the world: Industriales and the Yankees," said the pitcher, who earns $5 million a year playing for the New York Mets, though he was with the Yankees at the time of the interview. (...)

The prime time showing of the documentary surprised Cubans, some of whom saw it as a sign of greater tolerance and debate in Cuba since Cuban leader Fidel Castro fell ill and handed over the running of the country to his brother Raul in 2006.

In a speech on December 28, Raul Castro said there was "an excess of prohibitions" in Cuba that did more harm than good.

Hernandez praised its broadcast. "I imagine the documentary will be a breath of fresh air on television for Cubans," he told Miami's Spanish-language El Nuevo Herald newspaper.

Although this story lands on a baseball blog, it could very well be the first step towards real change in Cuba, to where the airing of this documentary would be looked upon eventually as the first signal that things were going to be different. Real change may be a long ways away. But perhaps it's ironic that it's the sport that Fidel Castro so loved that would play a central role in this first step.