Treasury Department Approves Cuba for World Baseball Event

[Itsme]

Treasury Department Approves Cuba for World Baseball Event

By JACK CURRY
Published: January 20, 2006

Cuba has been granted a license to participate in the World Baseball Classic by the Treasury Department, two people with direct knowledge of the process said today, enabling the country to compete in the 16-team tournament that runs from March 3-20.

Discuss the Postseason The license eliminates a thorny complication and potentially fatal blow to the event. If Cuba had been denied a license, the inaugural event would have been jeopardized because the International Baseball Federation said it would remove its sanction.

The two people with knowledge of the decision spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not yet authorized to discuss it.

Officials from Major League Baseball and the Players Association were certain to be relieved that Cuba, which won the 2004 Olympic gold medal, could participate in the World Baseball Classic. Cuba, a traditional baseball power, is in Pool C in the four-pool event, with Puerto Rico, Panama and the Netherlands. An official announcement about the license was expected this afternoon.

When the World Baseball Classic first sought a license for Cuba, the Treasury Department denied it because the Cubans would have made American dollars. That would have violated the United States' trade embargo against Cuba.

The tournament organizers submitted a second license request on Dec. 22 and eliminated any possibility that the Cubans would earn money. Paul Archey, baseball's senior vice president for international matters, and Doyle Pryor, a union lawyer, met with Cuban officials last week to gather information that had been requested by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, a division of the Treasury Department.

After Mr. Archey and Mr. Pryor gave the information to the Treasury Department, they were optimistic that Cuba would soon get a license, and the approval came through today. The deadline for provisional rosters has already passed so Cuba will have to provide its roster as soon as possible.

The dispute had threatened to have more far-reaching implications for the United States. In addition to the international federation's threat to withdraw its sanction, Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, linked the Cuban situation to a possible American bid for the 2016 Summer Games.

Mr. Rogge told The A.P. this week that he would welcome an Olympic bid, but added that there must be assurances that all countries would be allowed to compete without interference.

"We would need to have guarantees in terms of immigration, of all athletes and all countries, to avoid this issue that we have with Cuba," Rogge said. "These are things we need to have."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/20/sports/baseball/20cnd-baseball.html

[Bires]

YEAH!

Countries that play together don't got to war with each other. Next thing you know, you'll be able to buy cigars at the games. :winkie:

[Itsme]

Cuba can play, but will it show up?

Even though the United States allowed Cuba's invitation to the World Baseball Classic, there are several reasons why the three-time Olympic champions might choose not to participate in the event.

BY KEVIN BAXTER
[email protected]

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - The approval Friday of Cuba's invitation to play in March's World Baseball Classic assures the participation of the 15 other invited nations and might give the inaugural tournament prestige it would have lacked without the three-time Olympic champion.

What it doesn't do, however, is assure Cuba's participation. Some international baseball experts -- many of whom doubted Cuban's participation from the start -- believe there are a number of things that could keep the island nation out of the event, including the high probability of defections, the good chance that Cuba would not make it past the tournament's second round and the timing of the World Classic, which falls in the middle of Cuba's domestic baseball championships.

And consider that injuries have sidelined three of the national team's best pitchers, and a last-second pull-out by Cuba appears possible despite the U.S. Treasury Department's approval.

''Personally, I don't think they're going to show up,'' said Joe Kehoskie, a baseball agent who follows the Cuban program closely. ``All the factors working against them before are all still there. There's not only the risk of defections, but the risk of losing, which would be an embarrassment.''

Since the 1959 Castro revolution, Cuba's seleccion nacional has established itself as the best amateur team in the world. Aside from its three Olympic titles, the Cubans have won countless major global championships and once went more than a decade without losing an international tournament game.

STILL DOMINATES
And though the Cuban baseball program has been rocked by the defection of more than 100 players to the United States since 1991, it has continued to dominate international amateur play -- largely because the majority of the important competitions take place in the summer or early fall, when the best players from the Dominican, Venezuela, the U.S. and Japan are playing for their major-league teams.

As a result, the World Classic will mark the first time Cuba will face the best players from the other major baseball-playing countries -- and that could mean not only an early elimination from the tournament but a propaganda setback as well, because the Cuban government always has pointed toward the success of its baseball team to validate its political ideology.

Cuba is scheduled to open play March 8 against Panama. Its four-team pool also includes Puerto Rico and the Netherlands. Should it advance to the second round, Cuba likely would meet powerful teams from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela that are full of major-league stars.

That's stiff competition for a team that will be missing right-hander Norge Vera, who outdueled first-round draft pick Jared Weaver in the 2003 Pan Am final; right-hander Danny Betancourt, who won the 2004 Olympic gold medal game; and right-hander Vicyohandry Odelin, leaving only two front-line pitchers -- left-hander Adiel Palma and veteran right-hander Pedro Luis Lazo -- to anchor a weak Cuban staff that will be furthered hampered by tournament rules, which include a strict pitch count.

On offense, the Cubans are in better shape with right fielder Osmani Urrutia, a .400 hitter in Cuba's national series, versatile infielder Yulieski Gourriel and veteran catcher Ariel Pestano all available.

DEFECTIONS POSSIBLE
In an effort to make defections more difficult, Cuban's national team has not played on U.S. soil since beating the Baltimore Orioles in an exhibition at Camden Yards in 1999. Yet Friday's agreement with Classic organizers reportedly requires the Cuban team to show up in Puerto Rico without its regular -- and sizable -- security contingent.

''That's a perfect out,'' Kehoskie said. ``That gives them a reason not to come.''

If Cuba does pull out, it likely would be replaced by Nicaragua, which would be interesting, because the Nicaraguan media recently released a national team roster that included two Cuban defectors with Nicaraguan residency, including World Series star Jose Contreras.

But whether Cuba shows up, Friday's announcement figures to placate the International Baseball Federation, which had threatened to withdraw its sanction of the Classic if Cuba had been banned.

''I don't think they're going to show. But if the news arrives that the Cuban team is in San Juan, I might go over and check it out,'' Kehoskie said. ``I think it's going to be an interesting tournament.''

[Sirrich3]

I'd like to see them participate!