being part Cuban I can see why people here are angry but this tournament can not be serious if all countries that live baseball are not represented. I do not like the idea of stopping them from playing because they are not even saying how much money the teams get

As Juanky so eloquently put it's Castro's team of slaves. I'd rather see a team of exiles.

As Juanky so eloquently put it's Castro's team of slaves. I'd rather see a team of exiles.

 

Shhh, but I am going to tell you a secret. Do you think their best players plan on staying in the US or going back to Cuba? We can send Beinfest to rescue our next second baseman and outfielders.

Give it a break. It's not a team of slaves. Sure, Castro will use the team as propaganda if they win, but the poor Cuban people suffering through his dictatorship will be mighty happy. Let them have at least some joy. Not everything is about Castro. Sheesh.

This is pure political hogwash. This is the same as the US boycotting the Soviet games and vice versa. The population doesn't care about the politics, we care about the competition. Sports should be pure and should be fair and should be able to exist in a political vacuum.

 

Let them eat cake!

Though I wouldn't root for them, I think they should be allowed to play.

 

But I can see where the US government is coming from. They need to be consistent in their policy towards respective nation-states.

Although Id personally love to see them play,

I can understand why the aren't being allowed to.

The department of commerce actually decides wether we can conduct any

type of business with other countries under embargos.

I don't think they should be allowed to play, but I also don't think the government should have let it get as far as it did. They should have told MLB no before they ever announced the brackets.

I'm cuban too, but I love it when the team comes here. Two or three defections, guarenteed.

They won the Olympics, so its only right

North Korea is allowed to participate in the OLYMPICS got god sakes, so let Cuba be part of the WBC.

Yes, they should be able to play. I don't see a sensible reason why they shouldn't. It will be interesting to see what talent Cuba has been producing lately, since nobody outside of the "Communist Paradise" gets much knowledge of their teams.

 

Plus, we're talking about some baseball games, not opening up relations with the government or loosening the embargo.

Most definitely yes.

 

A ban on a particular country (in this case Cuba), is the same as boycotting and in the end serves no purpose. This is an INTERNATIONAL event, not a US sports event, and is being held in sites other than here in the mother land. If baseball is trying to grow globally, then they need to act globally and not isolationist. Some of the best competitions are the international soccer tournaments in Europe, etc. (yeah, soccer has riots, but that is not the point). Nationalism is the glorious by-product of international sports is the politics, and the rooting for/against countries because of various reasons. It's what elevates the sports to another level and gets the populace excited. Think USA-USSR (1972-Munich Basketball; 1980-Lake Placid Hockey) would have had the same meaning without the politics? Heck, when I was in high school, the soccer match-up with England-Argentina in the 1982 World Cup months after the Falklands Islands war, and all the contretemps that it brought, was a juicy delight. The point is, regardless of politics, line up and play.

 

The only country that has a problem with Cuba is the U.S., nobody else, regardless of their communist policies. It's not like the case with South African Apartheid was in the 1960's-80's, where the country was viewed globally as a pariah and treated as such and banned from events. Countries which have actually attacked other nations, committed numerous human rights atrocities, violated nuclear policies, etc. etc. like Libya, Iran, North Korea, aren't banned from Olympic or World Cup Soccer competitions, but everybody's britches are all in a tizzy over a Cuban baseball team. This is ironic especially in light of our government's stance on torture, etc.

 

Even though the US is the cash cow, but as we know the rest of the world doesn't like us, so if this goes through, don't look for easy US bids for hosting Winter + Summer Olympic games in the future. BTW, the next Summer Olympics are being held in Beijing, China, a communist country known for human rights atrocities. But the US won't do a Moscow 1980 because everybody is looking at China as a big untapped market and the $$$$ that brings.

 

Even though I've lived in South Florida for 20+ years, I think about Cuba the same amount of times I think about the morning rush hour traffic delays in Albuquerque. Yes, despite the common perception nationwide, not everything in South Florida revolves around Cuba and Castro. Castro is a dictator and Cuba and its people deserve better but banning a baseball team won't solve the issue.

Hell yea

Yes, most definitely.

No.

 

No country who's government is responsible for severe human rights violations, arbitrary encarcerations, or firing squads should be counted with our countries, ever, in any event. Whether most people or nations are ok with that is irrelevent. Just because you want an ax murderer on your bowling team doesn't make it right.

 

Though, I totally understand if you aren't of Cuban descent why you wouldn't care about whether or not Castro is a murderer and usurper. It's completely understable and I don't have any hard feelings for people who don't care about issues that are important to me.

 

Castro is our Hitler, though to most people he is just another dictator and I'm perfectly fine with that.