Sixteen years after the United States and Cuba called off a series of games between the two nations, a team of American college stars faced off against Cuban veterans in Havana. "This is awesome. I've never been out of the country before, so this is my first time," said USA outfielder Johnny Field, who won a College World Series title less than two weeks ago with the University of Arizona. "We've heard all the hype about how great the stadium is, and Cuba is at baseball, and it's already shown since we got here. ... We're fired up to be here." The last time Cuba and the U.S. played a series like this outside of tournament play was 1996, which even among 53 years of bad blood stood out as a particularly bad year for U.S.-Cuban relations.