A story has moved on the AP wire that quotes Orioles majority owner Peter Angelos as expressing interest in again staging exhibitions against the Cuban national team in Havana and Baltimore, as he did back in 1999. Click here for the story. "Hopefully as next spring approaches, both governments will see clearer to improve the relations and make it rather easy for there to be a reciprocal arrangement," Angelos says in the story. "Personally, I think the relations between the two countries should be clearly and emphatically re-established."

Angelos confirmed informal talks with the U.S. government about sending the Orioles to Cuba next spring. The timing is interesting, to say the least, with Cuban defector Aroldis Chapman drawing interest from the Orioles. I didn't make the last trip to Havana while serving as the backup beat writer for The Sun. I stayed behind and filed a story from Little Havana in Miami, noting that interest among the locals seemed to be pretty low. The game aired on one television and nobody was paying attention. The people I interviewed were indifferent to the whole thing, for whatever reason. I also had one of the greatest lunches of my life, but that's another story.