U.S. staging ugly coup by banning Cuba from WBC

                    

One of my favorite lines in Caddyshack is Rodney Dangerfield's response when Ted Knight tells him he'll never be a member at Bushwood: "Who made you Pope of this dump?" That's the question I'd like to pose to whomever is responsible for the U.S. Treasury Department's decision to ban Cuba from the inaugural World Baseball Classic.

Somehow, the U.S. government has decided that this tournament falls under its aegis. Never mind that Cuba can compete in the Olympics, the World Cup and a host of other international competitions. (The Cubans played in the soccer Gold Cup last year, their baseball team toured the States a few years back, and they sent an Olympic team to the 1996 games in Atlanta.)

The thing that bothers me is the notion that if the baseball community wants to determine the best team in the world, it has to do so subject to the rules and regulations, if not the whims, of the U.S. Treasury Department. We, as a country, don't own baseball, yet the boys in D.C., for some reason, have started acting as if we do. They've seized control, or in language that Havana-watchers would understand, they've staged a coup.

This isn't just a bad move from a baseball standpoint, it's also a remarkably arrogant one. And now Cuba, which had offered to donate any profits from its WBC appearance to Katrina victims, makes the U.S. look remarkably petty and Fidel Castro look like the good guy. It takes real political acumen to swing that.

In a perfect world, the other 15 countries in the tournament would simply tell the U.S. that they'll play it without the Yanks. But since the U.S. brings the TV deals, the exposure and a not insignificant number of star players to the party, that, alas, is what makes it Pope of the tournament.