Screw Bush, Screw Castro

So Hal summed up the facts pretty well. Coming soon, World Baseball Classic. Each country with any reasonable baseball presence will be supplying a team to play first in round-robin play, then next into a knock out round. So of course there's the USA, of course there's Canada and Japan and the Dominican Republic. And of course there's Cuba. No, wait, there's not. There will be no Cuba, even though Cuba has consistently been the best performer in all amateur baseball contests, including the Olympics. While the sport of baseball on the professional level hasn't existed in Cuba since a few years after the current regime took power, it is widely recognized as one of the baseball powerhouses of the world. Livan Hernandez, his brother El Duque, Rafael Palmeiro, Jose Canseco, Danny Baez, and Jose Contreras are just a few of the superstars produced by this small country. While these specific superstars all left Cuba and the Cuban National Team by defection, most of them still hold close ties to the Cuban exile population in America, and indirectly to Cuba, either through family that has stayed on the island or otherwise. Initially, when this tournament was announced, Fidel Castro made it very clear that no player who defected from Cuba would be allowed to play on the team in the World Baseball Classic. The current American administration then made it clear that Cuba would not be allowed to participate in the USA and Japan sponsored event, due to current trade embargo restrictions with the communist country. So in essence, although Cuban baseball players have an inextricable link to the political nature of their defection, they will be banned from participating in an event that not only myself, but countless other Cuban-Americans have been looking forward to since the sport of baseball was removed from the Summer Olympic Games. In a hilarious way, it's a great comment on the child-like relationship that has existed between our country and our neighbor to the south for decades. In an entirely unfunny way, it's a great comment on that same child-like relationship. The Cuban-exile fueled politics of American administrations since Kennedy that have reduced the Cuban economy to a tourism-based shell of what it was in the 20's and 50's. Now, the spat continues to grown men arguing about who can and cannot play baseball, a sport that for over a hundred years has been loved and enjoyed by people of all ages. I, for one, have become sick at this prospect.