On Tuesday afternoon, the Rays defeated the Cuban National Team 4-1 in a historic exhibition game in Havana, Cuba that marked the first time a sitting U.S. President had stepped foot on the island in 88 years.
The friendly exhibition between the two baseball-loving nations hopes to be the first step of many toward making socio-cultural and political progress in relations between the two countries.
MORE: Cuba's baseball legacy | Change is coming | What to expect
As important as the trip was, it was still just a business trip for the Rays, one they must return from in order to prepare for the start of the 2016 MLB season.
The problem with that?
The team's airplane was supposed to leave Havana at 10 p.m. on Tuesday night. By 3 a.m. on Wednesday morning, the players were still stuck on the runway.
Great trip to Cuba. But....we haven't left yet. We've been stuck on the runway for the past 6 hours. Safe to say we are a bit delusional
— Chris Archer (@ChrisArcher22) March 23, 2016
That must have been a reassuring feeling for some of the players on board: You're the second group of American athletes to play in Cuba in over 60 years, and following a 4-1 victory over the Cuban national team, your plane won't take off. That must have been fun.
On top of that, the second Rays' plane, the one carrying front office personnel and executives, took off after a much shorter delay.
From the Tampa Bay Times:
"The Rays had two planes leaving Havana after the game. The one carrying ownership, team executives, sponsors, media and St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman was delayed a few hours, landing at 10:30 p.m.
The second plane, carrying players, coaches and front office staff was initially delayed while the party milled about the small airport, then on the scheduled plane — and then, when a mechanical issue was discovered, had to switch to a different plane. All told it took them about 7 hours to make the 55-minute flight."
After waiting on the runway for 8 hours we're finally back in Tampa ready to go to sleep.
— Steven Souza Jr. (@SouzaJr) March 23, 2016
Thankfully, the delay was caused by a myriad of mechanical and logistical issues, and not some bigger issue straight from the pages of a Tom Clancy book.