Through the first half of the 20th Century, Major League Baseball enjoyed a healthy fellowship with the Cuban leagues. Cuba hosted MLB spring training games, the U.S. hosted traveling Cuban teams, and for a few years the Cincinnati Reds incorporated the Havana Sugar Kings into their minor league system. In 1947, the Brooklyn Dodgers held their Spring Training in Havana to make life a little easier for Jackie Robinson (who was about to break MLB's color barrier). But the fellowship came to a grinding halt shortly after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959. It would be 40 years before an American baseball team returned to the island nation.
