OTTAWA — The Cuban National Baseball Team is effectively joining the Can-Am League, and will play three games against the Ottawa Champions this summer.

The Cuban team will be in Ottawa from June 17 to 19, as part of a move that Can-Am Commissioner Miles Wolff calls “historic.”

“This is the first time since 1960, when Havana left the International League, that Cuban baseball has been part of a professional league,” Wolff said Wednesday at the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame. “They’re gonna play all our teams…they’re gonna be part of our standings. They’re part of our league.”

Mayor Jim Watson points out that Cuba and Ottawa already share a baseball history.

“In 1953 and 1954, the Ottawa Athletics and the Havana Sugar Kings were both members of the International League,” the Mayor said Wednesday. “62 years later, Ottawa and Cuba will re-ignite that competitive fire that existed more than six decades ago here in Ottawa.”

The Cubans will be playing in the Can-Am League from June 9 to 30, facing all six teams in the league.

The Shikoku Island League All-Stars from Japan will also be playing 19 games in the league this summer.