President Barack Obama waved to raucous, cheering crowds at Cuba’s Estadio Latinoamericano, as he and the first family took in a baseball game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cuban national team Tuesday.
Obama was accompanied by Cuban President Raúl Castro and other government officials. Also near the front was one of baseball’s first ladies: the wife of the late Major League Baseball player Jackie Robinson.
After a moment of silence for the victims of the terror attack in Belgium, the field was swarmed with dancing children and the baseball players were introduced.
A white-clad choir sang the U.S. and Cuban national anthems before white doves were released.
During his speech earlier in the day, Obama remarked about the mutual love of baseball.
“We share a national past-time — la pelota — and later today our players will compete on the same Havana field that Jackie Robinson played on before he made his Major League debut,” he said.
Obama, dressed in a white long-sleeve shirt and sunglasses, smiled and chatted with Castro, who was dressed in a blue suit. Obama reached through the stadium netting to shake the hands of the U.S. baseball players and waved into the stands.
“There is something about baseball that is so fundamentally woven into our culture,” he told ESPN, as he sat in the bleachers. “At a time in our lives where everything is a mile a minute...there is nothing like going to a ballpark and everything slowing down a bit.”
Obama, however, didn’t have much time for a break. The U.S. delegation left the stadium mid-game to catch a flight to Buenos Aires, where they will stay through Thursday.
Referring to Robinson’s role in helping change U.S. views on race, Obama said “that’s the power of sports.”
“It can change attitudes in ways that sometimes politicians can’t...or a speech can’t,” he said.