‘Obviously it’s hard.’ Cuban Andy Pages’ Dodgers success is bittersweet due to family sep…

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‘Obviously it’s hard.’ Cuban Andy Pages’ Dodgers success is bittersweet due to family separation

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Just 90 miles of open ocean separate Andy Pages’ boyhood home in Mantua, Cuba, from the southern tip of the Florida Keys. Yet the short distance between those two points is unbridgeable.

Politics has separated Cuba and the U.S. for most of the last 65 years, the last vestiges of a Cold War policy that has divided families and hurt people on both sides of the Straits of Florida far more than it has punished the Cuban government.

So when the Dodgers open the World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday, Pages’ parents and his sister likely won’t be sitting in the stands with the other players’ families. They’ll probably be searching for the game on Cuban TV or on a spotty internet link.

Dodgers Star Sends 3-Word Message After Trump Order Bars Family From World Series

The Los Angeles Dodgers are preparing to face the Toronto Blue Jays in the final leg of their quest to repeat as World Series champions.

After a second straight blockbuster offseason of star acquisitions, the Dodgers are heavily favored in the series and seem to have the advantage at virtually every position. But one thing that a pair of key players for the team won’t have is the in-person support of their closest family members.

After defecting from his native Cuba to pursue his dream of playing Major League Baseball, Dodgers outfielder Andy Pages was separated from his family due to political barriers between his home country and the U.S. Aside from his wife, no one in his family has ever seen him in a Dodgers uniform.

Dodgers Notes: Andy Pages, Miguel Rojas, starting rotation

Andy Pages and Miguel Rojas take family separation in stride as they make their dreams a reality.

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Andy Pages has been an impactful force for the Dodgers this season, though you might not realize it at first. He’s got the second-highest number of home runs on the team (after Shohei Ohtani, of course) and ranks in the top four for RBI, batting average, stolen bases, and total bases.

There’s something else that sets him apart from other players, though: Unlike most, his family isn’t able to sit in the stands and watch him play. They live in Cuba, and travel restrictions between the U.S. and its Caribbean neighbor make visits nearly impossible. Since Pages defected, he’d have a seriously tough time making a visit of his own.

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