BALTIMORE – An anti-Castro protester ran onto the field at the baseball game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Cuban all-stars last night – and was promptly decked by a Cuban umpire.
The man, holding a Castro-bashing sign, charged onto the diamond as the Orioles were taking the field in the fifth inning.
Second-base umpire Cesar Valdez grabbed the protester, then punched and body-slammed him.
A couple of Oriole players pulled the two apart – and several angry players from the Cuban national team started to come out of their dugout. but were held back by coaches.
The protester was arrested.
In the fourth inning, four men, one in a T-shirt calling for the release of Cuban political prisoners, were hauled off by cops after they ran onto the field.
The exhibition game – a follow-up to a 3-2 Oriole victory in Havana March 28 – was stalled in the first inning by a 56-minute rain delay.
Politics didn’t take long to muscle in, though, as a group of pro-Cuba demonstrators held up a large sign protesting the U.S. economic boycott against the Caribbean nation.
Before the game, some 300 picketers opposed to the regime of Cuban leader Fidel Castro chanted slogans outside Oriole Park at Camden Yards.