TAICHUNG, Taiwan -- If you were tuned into the World Baseball Classic matchup between Cuba and the Netherlands, you may not have seen him, but you could definitely hear him.
After any and every single Team Cuba highlight. A big hit, a strikeout, a strike. The Horn Guy.
“I’m from Cuba but I live in Houston,” Pablo Avila told me through an interpreter. “I’m a truck driver.”
Avila is one of the most devoted baseball fans you will find. He’s not only been to every single World Baseball Classic over the last 17 years, he’s also been to the Olympics and junior tournaments and World Cups. The Cuban native has followed his country everywhere.
“Wherever they go, I’m going,” he said, taking a break to yell out to the field.
He jokes that he’s not only one of the most famous people in Cuba, but the entire world. The crowd at Intercontinental -- mostly baseball fans from Taiwan -- immediately took a liking to Avila. They cheered with him and, in between almost every inning, groups of people went down to take selfies with him.
The players, of course, know him well (again, he’s always there) and he feels like this is a great squad that he could follow all the way to end.
“They’re very good,” Avila said. “One of the best teams ever. Like the 1990s teams.”
The '90s were a fantastic era for Cuban baseball -- the national team won Olympic Gold in both 1992 and 1996.
We’ll see how far this Cuban team (and Pablo The Horn Guy) will actually get over the next few days following Cuba's 4-2 loss to the Netherlands in the opening game.