Does this have potential?

[Xen]

There is a popular urban myth that former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro was once offered a try out with the Washington Senators, and in some legends it is the New York Yankees or Pittsburgh Pirates that lets him try out, however he is cut and goes on to rule Cuba. Truth be known, Castro was not that talented of a pitcher or a ball player in general, but what if he was?

Let’s say Castro is good but not great and is signed by the Philadelphia Athletics in 1948, he shuffles around the Athletics minor league system for a couple of years before making his major league debut at Shibe Park in Philadelphia against the St Louis Browns in 1951. Following the 1951 season, Castro is released and signed by the Cincinnati Reds and is assigned to the Charleston Senators, the Reds single-A franchise. Castro eventually is called up to Cincinnati and pitches with the Reds for the next couple of seasons. In 1955 Castro signs with the New York Giants as a relief pitcher and accompanies the team to San Francisco in 1958. Following the 1960 season, San Francisco released Castro, at the age 34 Fidel Castro signed with the expansion Los Angeles Angels, he finishes his career in the same city it began, Philadelphia this time as a Phillies pitcher where he is part of the Phillie Phold of 1964, his last season in the majors.

With Fidel Castro in the United States playing baseball, the Cuban Revolution fails miserably with many of the rebel leaders either killed or imprisoned by the Batista regime. Castro loathes Batista as his brother Raul was one of the many killed in the regimes crackdown on suspected revolutionary leaders. In spite of his hatred for the Batista regime, Castro was unable to do anything about it; Batista ruled Cuba until his death in 1973 and was succeeded by longtime friend Carlos Modesto Piedra. Communist revolutionaries continue to plague the rule of Batista until the mid 1960’s when President Lyndon B. Johnson sends the US Marines to assist. Throughout the Cold War, Cuba remains a staunch U.S. ally.

Fidel Castro settled in San Francisco and married a Mexican-American woman in 1965. The former Major League pitcher became involved in politics of the 1960’s, vehemently opposing the Vietnam War and becoming an ardent supporter of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy’s bid for the Democratic nomination. In 1970, Castro was elected to the San Francisco city council running as a Liberal Democrat, a regional party he helped found. Castro was elected Mayor of San Francisco in 1975 and served in that office for eight years. Following his time as Mayor and the death of Cuban dictator Carlos Modesto Piedra in 1988, Castro returned to Havana for the first time since 1952 and attempted to transform his home country from a dictatorship into a multiparty liberal democracy. He returned to the United States living for a short while in Miami where he was the Spanish play by play announcer for the Miami Marlins until his retirement in 2006. Now at the age of 83, Fidel Castro lives a quiet life in Havana and never misses a single AAA Havana Sugar Kings baseball game.

List of Cuban Generalissimos
1952-1973: Fugencio Batista
1973-1988: Carlos Modesto Piedra
1988-1989: Pepe San Roman
1989-1992: Manuel Antonio Loredo
1992-Present: Erneido Oliva

Cuba today is a typical banana republic relying heavily on investments from the United States, especially tourism. Havana has turned into a Caribbean Las Vegas complete with the neon lights, themed hotels and casinos and special events ranging from musical concerts to boxing matches. There is a darker, seedier side to Havana with prostitution and illegal narcotics running rampant in the city. Drug runners frequently clash with the US Coast Guard running between Cuba and Key West. Cruise ships are also a common site in Cuban ports, creating revenue for the locals surrounding beaches and other points of interest.

 

[Snowman23]

Very interesting timeline. Would be funny to have Fidel Castro a household name in the 60's but for different reasons...

 

[Helios Ra]

I'm rather bad at keeping my Kennedy-Asassination-Conspiracy-Theories straight, but wasn't one that the Mafia was esponsible for his killing because of Castro toppling the Batista regime and doing something to mob-run casinoes?
If I recall that correctly, perhaps it's newly re-elected President John F Kennedy who sends the Marines.

 

[Sigma7]

I don't know if the U.S. would continue to support the Batista regime if Castro is in Cuba or in San Francisco pitching for the Giants.

He was corrupt, a thug, the people hated him and he'd turned Cuba into a one stop money laundering shop for the mob. He had to go on so many levels.

Best case sees Ike withdraws U.S. support in '58 (like he did OTL) but with a twist: Ike proceeds to throw U.S. support (Special Forces training, guns, ammo, cash, standard covert war stuff) to the revolution.

Once the revolution gains ground and Batista's regime begins it's collapse, Ike (or Kennedy) send in the Marines to "protect American nationals and their property on the island of Cuba", providing the revolution with the final blow to sweep away the regime, but at the same time, put an American presence in Cuba to eliminate radical elements of the revolution (both left and right) and lay the foundations for a U.N. nation building mission that, hopefully, produces a stable and democratic Cuba that observes basic human rights.

In which case, Fidel can often times be spied sitting in his box seats behind home plate at the home games of the A.L. East's Havana Hurricanes.

 

[Gwendolyn Ingolfsson]

Best case sees Ike withdraws U.S. support in '58 (like he did OTL) but with a twist: Ike proceeds to throw U.S. support (Special Forces training, guns, ammo, cash, standard covert war stuff) to the revolution.

Once the revolution gains ground and Batista's regime begins it's collapse, Ike (or Kennedy) send in the Marines to "protect American nationals and their property on the island of Cuba", providing the revolution with the final blow to sweep away the regime, but at the same time, put an American presence in Cuba to eliminate radical elements of the revolution (both left and right) and lay the foundations for a U.N. nation building mission that, hopefully, produces a stable and democratic Cuba that observes basic human rights.

In which case, Fidel can often times be spied sitting in his box seats behind home plate at the home games of the A.L. East's Havana Hurricanes.

I like this one. Not sure how plausible it is, but it certainly sounds like a nice win-win alternative to what actually happened. Combine it with some of Xen's scenario above and it's even better!

 

[Sigma7]

I like this one. Not sure how plausible it is, but it certainly sounds like a nice win-win alternative to what actually happened.

It'd be trickey, the U.S. presence would have to go "Hearts and Minds" coupled with "Take and Hold" (instead of "Sweep and Clear") and support for popular (rather than convenient) political leaders from the jump and stick to it.

Then there's the nation building phase and continued peacekeeping opperations, but the whole point here is to keep the Soviets out of the western hemisphere, so if Cuba decides it wants to go with social-democracy, so be it, so long as it's democratic, stays aligned with the west and respects basic human rights.

 

[Gwendolyn Ingolfsson]

It'd be trickey, the U.S. presence would have to go "Hearts and Minds" coupled with "Take and Hold" (instead of "Sweep and Clear") and support for popular (rather than convenient) political leaders from the jump and stick to it.

And there's the rub. US policy back then was much in favour of getting behind whomever would make the appropriate anti-communist noises, regardless of what else they would actually do once in power. Still, in this scenario they'd just run down that particular road; after the mess Batista made I could see Ike wanting to try something a bit different.

Then there's the nation building phase and continued peacekeeping opperations, but the whole point here is to keep the Soviets out of the western hemisphere, so if Cuba decides it wants to go with social-democracy, so be it, so long as it's democratic, stays aligned with the west and respects basic human rights.

It may be especially enticing to the US if the UN decides to pick up the lions share of the nation-building tab in exchange for a major public presence there - that way the whole operation won't look too much like old-school American "Big Stick" diplomacy to the rest of Latin America.