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Brian O'Neill: The Clemente touch lures Cuban boxers to Pittsburgh

Post-Gazette

Brian O'Neill: The Clemente touch lures Cuban boxers to Pittsburgh

Roberto Clemente Jr. and Mike Diven recall being in a little room in the big Havana ballpark with three Cuban sports officials, and Mr. Diven realizing straightaway that “I’m the only guy in the room who doesn’t know what’s being said.”

They’d flown to Cuba two weeks ago to lure baseball players and boxers to Pittsburgh for tournaments next summer. Mr. Diven, a former state representative from Brookline, long has operated according to an old Catholic folkway: Sometimes it’s better to seek forgiveness than ask permission. He’d printed up T-shirts announcing a July 30, 2016, Pittsburgh vs. Cuba boxing tournament on the Roberto Clemente Bridge before either Pittsburgh or Cuban officials knew anything.

So now he was listening to Mr. Clemente, who he’d hoped would be his translator, ramble on in Spanish with the Cubans. Mr. Diven was lost, but Mr. Clemente said he didn’t stop to translate because “I didn’t want to go off the flow.’’

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In less than 10 minutes, Mr. Clemente was able to turn to Mr. Diven with three English words that set his mind at ease: “It’s all good.”

Seven to 10 Cuban boxing coaches will fly to Pittsburgh in March to scout local fighters in the third annual Donnybrook that pits Pittsburghers against their Irish counterparts on St. Patrick’s Day. Irish coach Michael Carruth, who won the Olympic welterweight gold medal in 1992, can expect to meet three-time Olympic heavyweight gold medalist Felix Savon of Cuba.

As Mr. Diven put it: “Cuba’s most iconic boxing champion and Ireland’s most iconic boxing champion getting together to watch a club show in Pittsburgh that a couple of jagoffs put together.”

Mr. Diven, Mr. Clemente and Pittsburgh coaches will return to Cuba in April to scout the chosen boxers and watch great baseball in the Cuban National Series. 

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The Clemente name, revered throughout the Caribbean, helped open doors. And the fact that the 20-plus-member Pittsburgh delegation incuded U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, and business and university leaders showed Cubans that Pittsburgh sought partnerships in more than just sports.

Though it was Mr. Clemente’s first visit to the island, he said it felt like going home. He’d spent the previous night talking with Cholly Naranjo, 81, the Cuban pitcher who was his father’s teammate on the 1956 Pirates, over Cuban sandwiches in Miami.

Mr. Clemente makes his home in Houston now, but he grew up in Puerto Rico hearing stories about Cuba, and he started talking baseball with the natives from the moment he touched down. 

The 55-year-old American embargo of Cuba put Mr. Clemente in a wondrous time warp. With 1950s American cars prowling the streets of Havana, I was “understanding what my father grew up seeing.” Mutual affection abounded.

Mr. Clemente more than matches Mr. Diven’s ambition. He’s seeking to expand the original plan of inviting teams from Cuba, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic to play their American peers in Pittsburgh, and invite Mexico and Japan, too. The Pirates are out of town at the end of July, so there should be room to play the deciding games in PNC Park.

It’s remarkable that Cuban boxing officials said “yes” to sending a team to Pittsburgh just a couple of days after their top amateurs head to Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Olympic games. But Mr. Diven said he told the Cubans he’d already spent a lot of money to print six dozen T-shirts so, you know, come on.

Those attending this free July tournament won’t be seeing Cuba’s very best young fighters, but rather those who have roughly the same skill level as the Americans they’ll face. Male and female fighters are expected. Boxers 18 and under are required to wear headgear.

Mr. Clemente said all boxers will be monitored before and after fights by RC21X, a Web-based, game-style program that tests memory and other brain skills. Mr. Clemente is an ambassador for the Coraopolis-based product that carries his father’s initials and his uniform number.

County officials hope to begin regular, non-stop charter flights from Pittsburgh to Havana to serve businesses and colleges hundreds of miles around. Mr. Diven would love academics and business leaders to help kick that off by filling a plane for the April trip.

The most unusual goal may be Mr. Clemente’s. He hopes to meet with Fidel Castro and tell him how, as a young boy, his first cigar was one he snuck from a cannister that the Cuban leader had gifted his father.

Brian O’Neill: boneill@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1947. 

 

First Published: November 29, 2015, 5:00 a.m.

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The front logo on a T-Shirt promoting the Pittsburgh vs. Cuba boxing event.  (Post-Gazette)
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