U.S. ban on Cuban baseball team leads to uproar

The Bush administration’s attempt to bar Cuba from an international baseball tournament has ignited a world firestorm of criticism, much of it from sports professionals in the United States itself.

When the decision was made last July to drop baseball from the 2012 Olympic Games, Major League Baseball (MLB), the MLB Players Association (MLBPA) and the International Baseball Federation (IBF) decided to sponsor a 16-nation tournament. The tournament, called the World Baseball Classic (WBC), would take place every four years, like the Olympic Games.

One reason baseball was eliminated from the Olympic Games is because the games take place in August, in the middle of the MLB season, preventing the best players from participating. However, the MLB players would be able to participate in the WBC championship tournament because it is scheduled for March, during MLB’s spring-training season. The event’s locations are to include the U.S., Puerto Rico and Japan.

Cuba is the reigning Olympic champion and holds all the current titles in the International Baseball Federation in both senior and junior categories.

Last month, on Dec. 14, the Bush administration informed event organizers that Cuba would be denied permission to send a squad to participate in the tournament, which would begin in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and end in San Diego on March 18 and 20. Washington cited U.S. laws governing commercial transactions with Cuba. This action by the Bush administration has engendered worldwide outrage.

For 45 years, the U.S. government has imposed an economic blockade on Cuba, ever since the popular revolution that overthrew the dictatorship of U.S.-backed Fulgencio Batista and liberated the Cuban economy from the control of Wall Street. For several decades, the United Nations General Assembly has opposed the blockade every year by overwhelming votes. The only country to consistently vote with Washington is Israel, which gets its major funding, political and military support from the U.S.

Generally, the U.S. corporate media have approved of this illegal and imperialist campaign to economically strangle Cuba. But now many U.S. newspapers are denouncing the ban on Cuban participation in the games. They cite three reasons: banning the world champions would make a farce out of the tournament; it could endanger the possibility of the U.S. hosting future Olympic Games, as other countries retaliate for this action; and it hurts the image of the U.S. at a time when it faces political problems over its occupation of Iraq and its failure to participate in international treaties on global warming and torture.

Peter Angelos, owner of the Baltimore Orioles MLB team, stated: “Once again, the U.S., this huge colossus, the strongest country in the world, is picking on this tiny little country of 11 million. And for what? For their participation in an international baseball event? That seems to me to make us look like the big, bad bully that our non-admirers say we look like.” (Baltimore Sun, Dec. 27)

U.S. Olympic Committee chair Peter Ueberroth called on the Bush administration to reverse the decision, stating: “It is important to any future bid city from the United States that this be reversed. It’s disappointing. This will impact IOC [International Olympic Committee] members negatively.”

This decision was particularly offensive to the people of Puerto Rico, who were given no say in the matter by Washington, confirming the island’s colonial status.

The president of Puerto Rico’s baseball federation, Israel Roldan, sent a letter to IBF President Aldo Notari stating: “It’s my duty to inform you that Puerto Rico withdraws its availability to serve as host and headquarters of the World Baseball Classic in the year 2006. The reason for this decision is that the Treasury Department of the United States government has announced that it will deny the corresponding permission in violation of the Olympic regulations guaranteeing Cuba’s participation in the aforementioned event.” Roldan said that what bothered and aggravated him was that the U.S. had initially told him that Cuba would be invited. (New York Daily News, Dec. 23)

In addition, over 100 members of the U.S. Congress have urged the Bush administration to reverse its decision.

The U.S. said it was acting to prevent Cuba from earning any money off the event. The Cuban Baseball Federation responded with a proposal that any earnings from its participation be donated to Hurricane Katrina victims. It said that Cuba has never competed for money.

Progressive Venezuela has proposed moving some of the games to Caracas so that the Cuban team could participate. Venezuela also proposed that one semifinal game be moved to Caracas from San Diego and that the final game be moved from San Diego to Toronto.

The WBC organizers have appealed to the Bush administration to reverse the decision and reapplied to the U.S. Treasury Department for permission to allow Cuba to participate. Paul Archey, MLB senior vice president for international matters, said about Cuban participation: “They view themselves, rightfully so, as world champions and the Olympic champions. They want every opportunity to play in this tournament. They don’t want this to deny them.” (New York Times, Dec. 23)

The MLB website features a Dec. 19 article by Mike Bauman, a national columnist for the group, entitled, “Give baseball fans the gift of Cuba,” and subtitled: “For Christmas, I want Cuba to be allowed to play in the World Baseball Classic.”

The Toledo Blade of Dec. 28 said it all: “To have a ‘World’ Baseball Classic without the Cubans is simply absurd.”