No walk up songs, no between-inning sumo wrestling suits, no home run sponsors.

Just baseball.

There are hot dogs, and there is popcorn, but there also are concrete steps for seats, and rather than a seventh inning stretch, there’s a coffee break for the umpires. This is baseball in Cuba.

At the Estadio Lationamericano, home of the Havana’s beloved Industriales, the price of admission is only a peso — three for fans who want to sit on the baseline. Penn State lost to the Industriales 2-1 at the ballpark on Monday, and is set to play there again on Wednesday.

When the electric-blue stadium was built in 1946, admission was free. Warmups are set to the soundtrack of claves and brass instruments broadcast through an over-modulated loudspeaker. Then the recorded music shuts off when the game starts.

Even without the sound of pre-recorded claps and an automated noise-meter, the Cuban spectators know when to cheer. They watch. Intently. Waiting for their team to turn a double play or send a ball out to the bright blue steps in far left field.

“It is passion you enjoy a lot,” said Yosuani Castaneda Tosa, who brought his 5-year-old daughter to Monday’s game. “You enjoy when you win and suffer when you lose.”  

Many feel the same, from the old men with cigars drooping from their mouths to the young people in t-shirts and shorts who come to the games on a regular basis. It’s not glamorous. But maybe it’s not meant to be.

“Honest authenticity,” said American visitor Lauren Selamn, who dropped in at the ballpark Monday to check out the scene. “People are just here to play the game.”   

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Gabrielle Chappel is a student in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State.