{"id":12708,"date":"2014-02-17T16:45:20","date_gmt":"2014-02-17T21:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.playingfieldpromotions.com\/blog\/?p=12708"},"modified":"2014-02-17T16:45:20","modified_gmt":"2014-02-17T21:45:20","slug":"ken-griffey-jr-barry-larkin-launch-mission-baseball-diplomacy-cuba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sportsspeakers360.com\/blog\/ken-griffey-jr-barry-larkin-launch-mission-baseball-diplomacy-cuba","title":{"rendered":"Ken Griffey Jr, Barry Larkin Launch Mission of Baseball Diplomacy in Cuba"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>HAVANNA, CUBA &#8212; Baseball megastars, Ken Griffey Jr &amp; Barry Larkin, arrived in Havana, Cuba as part of a sports-diplomacy program where the main goal is to foster personal ties between citizens of the United States and Cuba, who both share the love of baseball.<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12717\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12717\" style=\"width: 480px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12717  \" title=\"ken-griffey-jr-barry-larkin-speakers\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sportsspeakers360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/ken-griffey-jr-barry-larkin-speakers.webp\" width=\"480\" height=\"283\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12717\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo shows Ken Griffey Jr. &amp; Barry Larkin speaking to the media about their diplomatic baseball mission in Cuba. Each spoke on Feb. 16, 2014 at a clinic the players put on for Cuban youth<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\n<!--more-->It&#8217;s called America&#8217;s pastime, but it&#8217;s also the sport of choice in Cuba. In the spirit of that common language, both MLB stars launched a mission of baseball diplomacy. Each spoke Sunday, Feb. 16, at a clinic the players put on for Cuban youth where they talked baseball.<br \/>\nAlthough the United States and Cuba have no formal relationship, Griffey, Jr said baseball could help pave the way for political diplomacy. &#8220;You never know, Griffey, Jr. told the media. &#8220;Just time will tell. They&#8217;re passionate about baseball, we&#8217;re passionate about baseball. Hopefully things could happen.&#8221;<br \/>\nLarkin said, &#8220;Everybody wants to be associated with something positive, and when you&#8217;re dealing with baseball, you&#8217;re dealing with kids. It&#8217;s all about passing on the legacy, passing on the tradition and helping those kids become better. I feel like it&#8217;s our responsibility.&#8221;<br \/>\n<strong>Watch video of Ken Griffey Jr. &amp; Barry Larkin speaking about their mission in Cuba.<\/strong><br \/>\n<object width=\"492\" height=\"315\" classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/glmDDvqKz6A?hl=en_US&amp;version=3&amp;rel=0\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><\/object><br \/>\nPlaying Field Promotions is a booking agent for motivational sports speakers and celebrities. If you would like to book professional athletes like Ken Griffey, Jr or Barry Larkin for a speaking engagement, autograph signing, guest appearance, product endorsement or special event, contact our booking agent for speaker fees or call 800.966.1380.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HAVANNA, CUBA &#8212; Baseball megastars, Ken Griffey Jr &amp; Barry Larkin, arrived in Havana, Cuba as part of a sports-diplomacy program where the main goal is to foster personal ties between citizens of the United States and Cuba, who both share the love of baseball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,11,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-athlete-news","category-baseball-news","category-sports-speaker-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ken Griffey Jr, Barry Larkin Launch Mission of Baseball Diplomacy in Cuba -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"HAVANNA, CUBA -- Baseball megastars, Ken Griffey Jr &amp; 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