Published in the January 12, 2017 edition
North Reading resident Mike Driscoll, a senior at Northeastern, posed during a recent visit to Cuba with a young baseball fan sporting his newly-acquired Boston Red Sox hat. Read more about the visit in this week’s sports section. (Courtesy Photo)
BOSTON – Vintage cars and hand-rolled cigars were among the sights seen by North Reading’s Mike Driscoll during a recent visit to Cuba.
The senior right-handed pitcher accompanied the Northeastern University baseball and volleyball teams, coaches, athletic administrators and parents on a six-day stay on the Caribbean island over the week before Christmas.
Each athletic team played two games against local competition. The athletes also attended briefings on the country’s history and culture, and visited an agricultural cooperative where they literally got their hands dirty by helping out in the working fields.
The weeklong visit provided opportunities for some fun, as well. The group traveled to Tabaco La Rosita, a tobacco plantation on the western end of the island, and enjoyed an afternoon at the beach in Tarara. They also toured Havana, the island country’s capital city.
Driscoll is in the fourth year of Northeastern University’s five-year cooperative education program, which includes two six-month terms of employment.
He was named to the Colonial Athletic Association’s All-Academic Team for Baseball for the 2016 season and has also been on the CAA Commissioner’s Academic Award list in each of the last two years.
