Charlie MirandaTampa baseball all-stars return to Cuba, 57 years later

TAMPA --

Charlie Miranda, chairman of the Tampa City Council, wore a ballcap and gently rubbed a baseball as he sat in the dugout. Nearby, a group of his 60-something teammates took infield, bending a bit gingerly at times, but still showing the proper base-to-base instincts.

"This makes you feel young again,'' Miranda said. "We still have some dreams.''

Fifty-seven years ago, Miranda and his boyhood baseball all-star pals from Ybor City's Cuscaden Park traveled to Cuba for a five-game series against that nation's top youth players. Miranda still describes the trip, sponsored by the Ybor City Optimist Club, as one of his life's highlights. It was the pre-revolution Havana, a jewel of the Caribbean. The Ybor City boys saw it sparkle with nightlife, sunny beaches and plush resorts.

Now, they are returning to a very different Cuba. But they are hoping to find the same fulfillment through baseball and fellowship.

In a cruel irony, Miranda, still recovering from abdominal and lung surgery, can't make the trip. But three members of that original team – Gaither High School coach Frank Permuy, Paul Ferlita and Buck DeLaTorre – will travel Saturday to Havana for their week-long odyssey, along with a dozen others from that same era at Cuscaden Park. They will play a warm-up contest of softball, then three games of hardball, against their Cuban counterparts.

Miranda began working on the trip nearly a decade ago, first hoping for a 50-year anniversary return. But due to travel restrictions and other unforeseen logistical challenges, it is just now coming together.

"This is a sentimental trip for me,'' said Permuy, 68, whose maternal grandfather was born in Cuba. "It was the first time on a plane for most of us. I remember being very scared going over there, not knowing what to expect. But once we got there, the people put us at ease and we got the memories of a lifetime.''

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