Don’t you love that feeling when the oldies but goodies come back? Old rivalries revived, WAR playing from the radio and now, a Cuban baseball player has defected to the U.S. What’s so special about that? Considering that the last few defecting Cuban athletes have been soccer players, boxers and judo Olympians, there’s something about Dayan Viciedo settling down in South Florida that makes us nostalgic like a cup of Granma’s cafe con leche.

The 18-year-old Viciedo is from the central province of Villa Clara. He was a third baseman with the Villa Clara team, one of Cuba’s major league teams.

Word of his defection spread quickly in Cuban baseball circles Sunday as the island’s national team played an offseason exhibition with Puerto Rico.

“This was a very personal decision he made,” Villa Clara coach Victor Mesa, who attended Sunday’s game at Havana’s Latin American Stadium, told The Associated Press. “It appears he had a change of heart and wanted to try his luck there.”

Wait, to have a have a change of heart requires there to have been an option to begin with. Something tells us Viciedo didn’t have a change of heart as much as he had a way out of Cuba suddenly fall onto his lap.

One of Cuba’s top players defects to US [Sporting News]