A bit of diplomacy on a Victoria baseball diamond

It's a game that has to be played on Canadian soil.

The exhibition game to kick of the professional baseball season in Victoria features arare match up ofCuban and American teams.

The Unin de Reyes Cuban teamcomes to Vancouver Island each spring as part of a grassroots baseball exchange arranged byThe Cuban/Vancouver Island Baseball Journey Society.

The aim is to share in the internationallove of the baseball.

The highlight of the trip is usually a game against the Victoria HarbourCats, the West Coast League baseball franchise in Victoria.

But this year, the HarbourCats decided to throwsome potentially thorny international relations into the mixwhen they invited a team from south of the border to play against the Cubans.

"When we brought it up to the Port Angeles Lefties, they jumped all over it," said Jim Swanson, managing partner for the Victoria HarbourCats.

"They also realized that there's an opportunity to do something that's a bigger mindset and a bigger thought around this."

The HarbourCats know the frosty political relations between the U.S. and Cuba well.In previous years, the team has had Cuban players on its own roster during the regular season.

But those players could not go to away games that wereplayed in the U.S. because of the many obstaclesCubans face entering the country.

"They are not allowed to cross the border," Swanson said."They can't touch down in the U.S."

Offering a Canadian venue for the game with the Port Angeles team was the perfect way to use baseball to bring the Cubans and Americans together on the same field, Swanson said.

"They come here and they get to do something very, very unique," he said."The realize it too. The Cubans, Port Angeles, everybody realizes how rare this opportunity is."

The Cuban players say any political tensions will be left on the sidelines when the teams hit the field for Sunday's game.

"We just want to play baseball, said coachSaul Basallo Armas through a translator.

The first pitch in this unique international celebration of the sport will be thrown at 1 p.m. Sunday at Victoria's Royal Athletic Park.

Following the game with the Port Angeles Lefties, the Cuban team will play the Victoria HarbourCats.