C a l le r s to Jose Cansecos hotline (900 234-JOSE) can be charmed (for a small fee) with messages such as this: “Toronto fans are real jerks. I was going out for dinner with’my wife in Toronto at Trader Vic’s after we took the pennant, and some Toronto fans started yelling, ‘Steroids! Steroids!’ So I yelled back at them, ‘Kiss my butt!’ I should have kicked their butts.” complete access to the team. After practice, the players gather around the Yanqui reportero. Our conversational pepper game slides from my fan loyalties to Portland’s Beavers and AAA ball, to the Oakland Athletics, American League and Jose Canseco. There is pride that a Cuban has done so well, but also resentment that he’s in the U.S. at all. This becomes a familiar contradiction. We talk about salaries. The Cuban players all hold other jobs, mostly as high school and college teachers. They make about $200 to $500 a month, with full paid leave from work to play ball, but no financial rewards beyond their normal wages. Travel expenses are all taken care of, and like all other Cubans, they have the “social wage” : subsidized housing and food, free medical care, free education through post-graduate work and many other subsidies. Housing is allotted on need, but the cost is determined by ability to pay. Thus someone with a small family but a large income will pay more for less space than someone with a large family and a small income. They want to know what Canseco makes. 1 guess about $350,000, pretty close for last year. Eyes light up. This is not an astract discussion, since all the players who went to the Pan-Am Games in Indianapolis tell of attempts to recruit them. No one accepted the offers. One pitcher quotes Juan Tejorena. Offered huge sums of money to go to the U.S., he replied, “No amount of money could replace the love of 10 million Cubans.” The players begin a sophisticated analysis of Canseco’s salary. How much goes to agents, to lawyers, to taxes? What does he pay for housing, for his kids’ education, food? What happens if he’s injured? How about retirement? What are the social costs of living in the U.S.? In Oakland? What about crime, drugs, racism? These folks like it here. How many Jose Canseco’s are playing now in Cuba? None. Kids who want to talk with Juan Bravo or cop his autograph go to the park early. For free. They don't dial a 900 number. Nobody here gets paid a million dollars. Neither has anyone been accuser! of using steroids nor been in steady trouble with the law. Players never go to the park wondering if their kids are safe from drugs and crime. Many things are different about the Cuban game: aluminum bats, designated hitters, no alcohol in the stands, fried pork rinds and coffee replacing hot dogs and beer. The crowd throws back foul balls, though not home runs, and a national law mandates universal free admission. No caro—it’s not worth it— closes out a game at 7 innings if one team is ahead by 10 or more runs. But baseball is baseball, which the Cubans call el af- icion national—the nation’s love. Long isolated from their neighbors to Offered huge sums of money to go to the U.S., Juan Tejorena replied, “No amount of money could replace the love of 10 million Cubans.” Manager Rudolfo Puente. the north, Cubans have become true internationalists. Los Industriales greatest treasure is a retired player, their unofficial coach Agustin Marquetti. He gave up two seasons in the middle of his career to fight with the Sandinistas in the mid-’70s. His volunteering was not officially approved in Cuba, but he’s clearly a respected, heroic figure on his team. A justFrench country cooking in an elegant atmosphere at refreshingly low prices. "The kind of place everybody is looking for." (Roger Porter and Karen Brooks, Sept. 1986) • Full Bar • Free Parking • Non-Smoking Restaurant • Major C red it Cards Accepted Seating from 5:30 to 10:00 pm Mon. - Sat. 1987 N.W. Kearney, Portland For Reservations 295-6487 ■^continental breakfast 7:00 AM -6 0 0 PM. MON-FRI/8:00 AM -&00 PM. SAT/SUN BRUNCH 8:00 AM -2 0 0 PM' LOCATED ON THE CORNER OF NW 24TH and THURMAN PHONE: 243-3247 Special New Years Day Brunch 9-3 featuring Charles Grosman, acoustic jazz guitarist
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