Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Wednesday that his mentor and friend Fidel Castro has "recovered his fastball," but needs more time to warm up before returning to the field.
Chavez met with the recovering 80-year-old Castro for six hours behind closed doors during a surprise visit to Cuba's capital.
He said the pair usually talk for longer and could have continued chatting on Tuesday, but that it was "enough already."
"I can tell you that he has recovered his fastball of 90 miles an hour [145kph]," Chavez said on Wednesday, applying a baseball metaphor to Castro, who was an accomplished pitcher as a young man.
Castro "has his uniform hanging near him and he's peeking at it, but he's still warming up his arm," the 52-year-old Chavez told a group of top Cuban government leaders and students from Havana and Venezuela.
"He's not yet ready to take the diamond," he added.
Chavez then told a joke, hinting that when Castro does don his trademark olive-green military uniform anew, his 75-year-old brother Raul, Cuba's acting president, would broadcast the ceremony, panning over the statue with the city's iconic San Cristobal de la Cabana Fortress in the background as a military band played.
Wearing thick sunglasses and his trademark olive fatigues, Raul Castro traded jokes with Chavez, but official microphones did not pick up what was said.
Chavez left Cuba late on Wednesday, but only after Raul saw him off at Havana's airport, state media said.
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