Royals’ Kendrys Morales optimistic President Obama’s Cuba visit will open doors

In all the pageantry and celebration surrounding the historic moments taking place this week in Havana, it’s easy to forget about the people affected by this titanic event.

This week, President Barack Obama led a group that included MLB’s Tampa Bay Rays, a large ESPN crew, and numerous dignitaries for a landmark meeting with the president of Cuba, Raul Castro.

As part of the festivities, a baseball game was played Tuesday afternoon between the Rays and the Cuban National Team.

It took almost 90 years for Obama to get there since the last U.S. president visited. It has been 57 years since Fidel Castro’s Communist regime began its reign following the Cuban Revolution in 1959.

President Obama was greeted warmly upon his arrival aboard Air Force One in his first attempt to travel to Cuba.

Royals designated hitter Kendrys Morales needed 13 tries to make his way across the roughly 110 miles of treacherous ocean that divide his home country and the southern coast of Florida.

Despite any acrimony he might feel for his home country, from which he fled after being suspended by the Cuban national team (wrongfully, according to him, for allegedly speaking to a professional baseball agent), Morales is hopeful this presidential visit will yield good results.

Royals' Kendrys Morales on MLB in Cuba and the World Series parade in KC 

“I think that, you have to take it for the positive part,” Morales said, speaking in Spanish. “Because they are opening the door, right?”

Morales hopes that President Obama’s efforts to improve relations between the two old Cold War enemies will help others like him avoid what he went through.

Many Cuban-Americans have spoken out against the president’s actions and the MLB presence, saying that shaking hands with the same regime that jailed, persecuted and killed political dissenters, often including the loved ones of these immigrant families, was a slap in the face to those who had suffered under the Castros.

Morales, at least outwardly, is more optimistic. He sees this as an opportunity for his countrymen to have a safer path to the United States.

“I believe that it would be good to allow more Cuban ballplayers to come here,” Morales said. “And right now they’re opening the bridge, and I believe it’s very good for the Cuban ballplayers there to be able to leave.”

Morales said he has a lot of family still in Cuba, but that he’s able to speak with them regularly. He hasn’t asked them what they think of the visit or the game.

Morales watched a few innings of Tampa’s 4-1 victory over Cuba on Tuesday before going to a team meeting.

Morales is focused on the doors this opens for those who, like him, just want to play baseball at the highest level.

“For Cuban players to be able to come to (MLB),” Morales said, “hopefully they can develop this more.”

This story was originally published March 22, 2016 at 6:44 PM with the headline "Royals’ Kendrys Morales optimistic President Obama’s Cuba visit will open doors."