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Barrhead Orioles prepare 4,000 km plus road trip

The Barrhead Midget Orioles have only played the first half of the season, but they are already making plans for an extended week-long trip to Cuba.
Orioles coach Doug Hanlan, who believes he just hit the winning homerun for the World Baseball Championship, takes a selfie with a devoted fan Jason Murrell.
Orioles coach Doug Hanlan, who believes he just hit the winning homerun for the World Baseball Championship, takes a selfie with a devoted fan Jason Murrell.

The Barrhead Midget Orioles have only played the first half of the season, but they are already making plans for an extended week-long trip to Cuba.

In late January, the Orioles will travel to Cuba under the moniker of Team Canada for a seven-day goodwill tour. There they will play five exhibition games against various local teams and run a mini baseball camp for underprivileged Cuban youths.

As part of the tour the team, which includes 11 locals, will distribute about 1,500 pounds of used baseball equipment, as well as assorted school supplies.

Orioles coach Doug Hanlan said he first heard about the opportunity through a friend of a friend who had taken some of his kids on the tour.

The tour is arranged through a private company Caribbean Baseball Goodwill Tours.

“It is an amazing experience, baseball and otherwise,” he said, before a fundraising performance by Sangudo-based hypnotist Kevin Meier June 2. “Our representative for the week will either be ex-major leaguers Bill ‘Spaceman’ Lee [played for Boston and Montreal in the late 70s and early 80s] or Devon White [former Angel, Blue Jay, Marlin and Diamondback] and a translator will also accompany us.”

Hanlan said it would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the kids. At first, he wasn’t sure if it is something the Orioles wanted to take on.

“It is a huge commitment,” he said, adding a full team has never gone before. Eleven out of the 12 players will be from Barrhead.

Hanlan estimates it will cost in the range of $24,000 for the team to go to Cuba.

“Basically, it is $2,000 per child, everything included,” he said, adding the team is hoping to fundraise the majority of the funds. “Of course we will be accepting donations and doing traditional fundraisers, such as barbecues, but we want the boys to work for the money so that way they can have the added pride of knowing that they really had to work to get there.”

The team is currently in the process of drafting a letter that will be sent to local businesses asking them if they would like to donate to the cause or if the team can earn funds in exchange for completing work.

So far they’ve worked as chicken catchers on two different occasions and highway cleanup, in addition to the hypnotist show.

“He [Meier] is actually one of the fathers of a couple of our players and has been doing hypnotism for about four years now and said he would like to do a show and donate all the money to the boys and their trip,” he said. “So we put it together kind of at the last minute and got the word out as best as we could.”


Barry Kerton

About the Author: Barry Kerton

Barry Kerton is the managing editor of the Barrhead Leader, joining the paper in 2014. He covers news, municipal politics and sports.
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