The only hissy fit being thrown seems to be by the US Treasury Department for refusing to let Cuba play baseball in an international baseball tournament. The IBAF is simply reacting to that decision.
I see no evidence of "bureaucrats looking for a piece of the pie". Only a governing body that wants all the teams invited to simply be allowed to play.

But what does the IBAF have to do with this tournament? Why should I care about them? The history of international sports associations, is pretty shoddy. These are the same types of people who took medals away from Jim Thorpe, allowed professionals from communist countries to play as amateurs, took kick backs to place Olympics, etc. Again, why should I care that the IBAF sanctions a tournament?

I believe the IBAF is coordinating the WBC with MLB as a goodwill gesture. The whole point is to put baseball on display as a true international event (dispite the exhibition feel of it). My point is I don't think the IBAF is trying to strongarm anyone or get any special treatment. The IBAF is simply upset, as are others, at the exclusion of a particular team.
That being said, I don't believe the lack of the IBAF's sanction will effect the WBC much. Yet a wider boycott from other countries cpould turn this thing into a more irrelevant event than it is now.

who cares what they have to do with the tournament? i'm just glad that somebody is speaking up about cuba being excluded.

why should cuba be excluded? because of human rights? why, when everything i buy at walmart is Made in China? eff the bureaucrats in the treasury department. maybe the president will override their decision if somebody makes a stink about it. i mean, he IS a baseball fan, isn't he? i cant imagine a wbc without cuba, thats all they do there is baseball.

If there is an issue of the prize money violating the US embargo against Cuba, they have already volenteered to donate any earnings to Hurricane Katrina victims. I don't see any reason why Cuba should not be allowed to compete. This is only a baseball game, and the purpose is to bring the global community together in celebrating baseball. It dosen't seem right to pick a fight over something as petty as this.

Let Cuban major leaguers play for Cuba. Don't allow Cuban government thugs to keep players on its team under house arrest when they are playing in countries that they are likely to defect to (checked only by the justified fear that family members and friends back in good ol' baseball lovin' Cuba will suffer reprisals from more Cuban government thugs). Then we can talk about "just wanting to let them play baseball." Of course, these things will never happen. Accordingly, Castro et al. can go jump, as far as I'm concerned. When you compare US policy on this issue to the thuggery of the Cuban government, we come off looking pretty okay. I'm not Cuban-American, I don't live in Florida, and I'm not Republican, but I don't give one shite for the "ease up on Fidel" argument. What's his team's motto going to be: "The most closely guarded team in international sports"? If they end up being allowed to play, fine. But just realize, all you baseball fans, that you will be watching a squad of virtual prisoners out there on the old diamond.

By the way, David, you're my new hero for your comments on this issue.

I agree CF, we can do without a public display of slave talent. That's what Cuba's squad is made of. And that's a shame.

Who said anything about Fidel? This is about baseball players in Cuba being allowed to play baseball. Baseball not politics. If the US starts banning countries it has a problem with who'e next? Venezuela because Chavez hate Bush and always tries to start poblems? Mexico because of border tension? Italy and Korea because they are withdrawing/reducing their troops from Iraq and not helping the US in the War on Terror? And don't even get me started on the human rights abruses of China. Where is your outrage and demand for banning the Chinese team? This IS about baseball.

If you allow politics to enter the fray, how many countries will be left to compete? It won't be the "World Baseball Classic". It will be the US invitational, or a series of games between the best American players from the American League and the National Leauge. We already play a game like that in July.

International sporting events have always been used to bring different countries together in spite of political differences (its a key plank of the entire concept of the olympics).

If this tournament is about baseball, let the players play. If you want politics involved, then apply that standard evenly. Not just to Cuba. Or don't play at all.

If the tournament is about baseball, not politics, let's hear the oh-so-moral IBAF demanding that there be no armed guards menacing the Cuban players when they are in this country. Let 'em play, sure. Let 'em walk the hotel lobby without a secret-police shadow, too. Never will happen, though, because everyone knows there's a good chance that the guys who "only want to play ball" (for Castro!) will bolt for the exit. Under the circumstances, I consider it no great loss to baseball fandom that the best police-state show-team in the world won't be out there putting a human face on Uncle Fidel. While I'm sure the Cuban players really do want to play in this tournament, I think we should also stand up for their right to escape their jailers. Come on, IBAF, let's hear it!

I agree CF, we can do without a public display of slave talent. That's what Cuba's squad is made of. And that's a shame.

Do you also despise the slave talent on display during the olympics? How about those 12 year old Cubans who compete in the little league World Series? It's baseball. Play.

If you are so concerned about the Cuban players, why wouldn't you want to give them the opportunity to come to this country where they would have a much better chance to defect (armed guards or not). Fidel dosen't seem to have a problem with letting his players enter the US even though he knows it is a great opportunity to defect. It seems you would support giving the players that chance.

Also I never claimed to support the IBAF in everything that they do. I just don't think they are in the wrong for standing up for a member country.

And I still don't see any outrage over the presence of the Chinese team. Castro represses an island of some 11 million people. The government of China represses over 1 billion people. Again, if you want to apply politics to the game, do so evenly.

Well, as a matter of fact, the Olympics, which are undeniably highly politicized anyway, do actually kind of turn my stomach (at times), and they were even more grotesque before the fall of the Soviet Union and its satellites. And the Olympic Committee: I mean, how corrupt and morally bankrupt can an organization get? I don't deny that there are a lot of individual stories of interest arising out of international competition like the Olympics, put you've got to really hold your nose and close one eye if you want to see it as some kind of pure sporting event. I don't watch it so much anymore. I hope those 12-year-old Cuban little leaguers one day get to play in a country that actually chooses its leaders and doesn't guard its exits.

2 wrongs don't make a right. Some take the surface view, US bad, rest of the world good. David is 100% correct about the international sports bureaucrats. It's Cuban representatives in the US who pressured the government to take the action it did. If these guys tried to leave Cuba and were caught, they'd be executed within a few days. Buying the cheap Hollywood headlines
about Fidel is quite pathetc.

Well, in a way, I do agree with what David Pinto said: I hope the Cuban team does play; I hope it loses all its games; and I hope a lot of players defect. Be kind of a nice little ending. (I think he said that, anyway.)

Sadly, susan is right, too: if there are defections, there will be ugly reprisals. Under the circumstances, I don't care that much about what happens to this exhbition.

CF,
I don't disagress with your attitude toward Fidel Castro or his government, nor am I an advocate for International governing bodies or the sanctity of the Olympics. I just don't you should deny the players the right to play.

Because the US buys large amounts of oil from the middle east does not mean that our government accepts and condones all the horrors that occur in some repressive countries. Along the same line I do not believe allowing Cuba to play in the WBC is in any way an acceptance of Castro's policies.

And wouldn't it be a better showcase for the world, Cuban players and Cuban citizens to allow players to experience this country's freedoms first-hand to demostrate a stark contrast to life in Cuba?

Susan,
I don't know what you mean by Hollywood headlines about Fidel or US bad rest of the world good (as far as I can tell no one on this thread has either prasied Castro or condemned the US). I also don't understand all the talk about international bureaucracy (the only issue seems to be if Cuba will be allowed to play, not whether any corrupt body is going to get kickbacks).

As far as defections, it still seems much easier to defect from a forgien country than floating on an innertube for 90 miles in choppy waters. So why not let the players come, play and possibly defect? How does any of this hurt the US?

If I remember right, MLB had to negotiate a lot with Japan to get them into the tournament and one of their concerns was that an international body was not involved in the planning at the time. I think they also wanted drug/steroid testing of international standards not picked by MLB/MLBPA. Perhaps IBAF participation was MLB's way to assuage this.

Miles, you mentioned Cuba's dictator & the headline he
wanted you to bite on to improve his public perception
in your 3rd post. The rest of the issues have been
covered by David & others here. As it turns out, Japan
has less to worry about now that Iguchi has dropped out
of the tourney.

Are you talking about donating the money? The Treasury Dept opened the do to that one by objecting to the prize money. Castro didn't make that offer until after the US objection. I also don't see anywhere in my post where I championed Castro for the gesture or talked about how he is a great and generous man. I didn't bite on anything. I just pointed out that if the Treas. Dept only had a problem with the money, it could be easily rectified.

And thanks for not responding to any of the other points I made (sorry I don't see where David and the others covered it), let's just agree to disagree.

David....
You've probably presumed this already, but here's a piece of an article on mlb.com (http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/news/mlb_news.jspymd=20040705&content_id=790000&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp ) that answers your question as to why you should care what the IBA thinks....

"There are currently baseball federations from 113 countries that come under the umbrella of the IBAF and look toward the international body for direction. Thus, IBAF sanction of the MLB event is essential to its success. MLB has been planning its first international tournament since last year, but it couldn't move forward until a drug agreement allowing Major Leaguers to play was reached with the Players' Association. The agreement, reached in April, is more closely aligned to testing for international events such as the Olympics than to the steroids testing in force now in the Major Leagues."

I understand in theory why the Treasury Dept. is up in arms about this, but I don't understand why they selectively enforce..... it was okay for Cuba to participate in the Olympics in Atlanta, but not for this event?

To address the original question:
Sanction from the IBAF is not mere goodwill, and not irrelevant horning in on a "private" matter. Sanction is required by IBAF statutes for international tournaments involving member federations, as this tournament does. It is possible, and perhaps likely that loss of sanction would cause the tournament to be cancelled. One of the delays in establishing this tournament in the first place was a delay in obtaining IBAF sanction. (See the 18th paragraph of this story from 10 months ago:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2057633
which mentions the difficulty in getting IBAF sanction for the tournament as a reason it did not take place a year earlier than this.)
For those interested in reading the relevant IBAF statutes, see http://www.baseball.ch/2003/f/statutes/stat.html
{chapter 6, articles 64-65)

Penalties for violating the statutes are governed by IBAF bylaws:
http://www.baseball.ch/2003/f/statutes/bl.html
and could involve fines, suspension of national federations, and/or exclusion from international championships such as the olympics.

Otherwise I am in agreement with Miles's points. I'll add that I won't accept the characterization of Cuban athletes - who are celebrities in their own country and not forced to play - as slaves. At most, they might be described as prisoners while abroad.

First off, the WBC IS a political event. When you have national teams, play national anthems, display national flags and players represent COUNTRIES, then you have a political event. You cannot simply complain about politics creeping into sports when the whole thing is all about which COUNTRY is the best baseball COUNTRY. It's all about $$ and national pride.

A non-political WBC would simply invite the best TEAMS in the world to play a tournament, teams from various leagues around the world. This would be similar to soccer's club championships. Is that unfair? To whom?

As for Castro, he only wants to field his team so that they he can trumpet the success of his style of government and justify his rule. Even though I think he is personally a baseball fan, this is all to do with PR for his regime and a distraction for his people from the less-than-stellar living conditions he has created for them. (You could almost argue in fact that banning the Cuban baseball team from playing in the US while Castro is head of state would do more to oust him from power than the trade embargo, but that's another topic for another time)

For the most part, international sports governing bodies do what most bureaucracies do: whatever they can to keep themselves in control and increase their power. That means requiring their 'sanction' of a sporting event, having them control the 'rights' to events so that they can peddle them to corporate sponsors and national sports bodies, and yes, playing blatant politics. The politics shows up in everything from choosing venues, to dictating what names countries can call themselves (Chinese-Taipei), to picking referees, umpires and judges.

My own enjoyment of baseball has nothing to do with IBAF sanction, or international tournaments, or claims of which country is best. I like watching the best PLAYERS in the world, wherever they come from, play baseball day in and day out against each other. That's what MLB is currently. What happens in a WBC is irrelevant and a distraction.

It is possible, and perhaps likely that loss of sanction would cause the tournament to be cancelled.

Two words: Big deal.

Right, Castro thinks he's going to parade his players around and show the world how superior Communism is. That's what he's been able to do all this time playing against amateurs. Letting the Cubans compete againt real major leaguers is going to give him a big shock. This is the perfect opportunity to let Castro fall on his face. It seems like the US could throow the ball back into Castro's court by telling him he can't send his armed thugs over here, just the players and coaches.

" Letting the Cubans compete againt real major leaguers is going to give him a big shock."

The Cuban team played the orioles (real major leaguers) a few years back and lost in extra innings in the first game then kicked the orioles @sses in the 2nd (with a "b-team" because players from teams in the cuban playoffs which were happening at the time could not play!).

Cuba vs Orioles

Havana, Cuba 1999

Orioles 3
Cuba 2

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/orioles/daily/march99/29/os29.htm

At Baltimore, USA

Cuba 12
Orioles 6

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/orioles/daily/may99/04/boz4.htm

Note: The Cuban Championship Series was taking place so players from these teams were not eligible to play.

Baltimore Orioles notable players: Cal Riplen Jr, Albert Belle, Brady Anderson, Mike Bordick, Delano DeShields, Harold Baines, Will Clark, Scott Erickson, Jessie Orozco, Mike Timlin, Charles Johnson, B. J. Surhoff

Cuba notables: Jose Contreras, Yobal Duenas, Andy Morales, Jose Ibar, Pedro Lazo

"In May of 1999, the Orioles had the worst record in the American League. Several players and the manager had stated to the national press that they would rather have the day off. ..."

Oh, and the game played earlier in Cuba, it was invitation only with Castro toadies getting preference and no riff raff allowed. Fidel: So egalitarian.

LL E,
1.
the orioles, although they sucked that year, featured a first ballot hall of famer (ripken), a player with HOF credentials (belle), another excellent player (reynolds) one of the best relievers in the game (timlin), and the ageless wonder (orrosco). I am not arguing that the orioles were a good team; i am arguing that the cuban team has played againt "real major leaguers" as the previous poster termed it and gave them an ass-whoopin in one game and lost in extra innings in the other.

2. i have not heard one person on this board sticking up for castro at all. nobody is defending him or his policies so im not quite sure who or what your witty comment is directed at.

Let Cuba play ball. cuba si ~ bloqeo no!

Let Cuban major leaguers play ball.

I seem to recall someone with a post under the comment section of this site a while back making a moral equivalency argument, comparing US attempts to off Castro after it had become apparent that he was a Soviet-backed thug to Castro's horrible treatment of political dissidents in his country. Anyone remember who it was that made that comment?

Cuba, si; Castro, no.

"Let the Cuban Major leaguers play ball"

yeah lets watch jose canseco, raffy palmiero, alex sanchez, el duque + livan hernandez, alay soler, and contreras battle it out.

are there even 9 active major league players of cuban descent?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Current_Major_League_Baseball_players_by_nationality#Cuba

There's a few more than what you list, and sadly, probably some somewhere at the bottom of the Atlantic. Even so, there's enough to make up a good nucleus for a team.

I don't get your point, tony, other than you don't want to embarrass Castro.

i dont know what you mean by "you dont want to embarass castro" please clarify

"theres a few more than what you list"- i provided a source, can you provide a source listing more cuban players in mlb than what i gave? sounds to like you are making things up.

my point is that cuba produces some of the finest baseball talent in the world. they are the olympic champions (won in atlanta, usa) and by all means should be allowed to play. i had the wonderful experience of being in cuba and i saw how much they appreciate the game there. our government should not let a grudge from 10 presidents ago interefere with international sport and friendly competition (not politics). cuba is to baseball what brasil is to soccer.

viva cuba! viva baseball!

ps i dont really give a damn about fidel

tony:

You really aren't trying very hard at all, are you? Here are some links you might be interested in:

http://www.cubanball.com/Images/Majors/PLTR2005.pdf

http://www.cubanball.com/Images/Majors/Minor2005.pdf

Just a small selection of those who would be eligible on the MLB list; and many, many more on the minor league list:

Livian
Kendry Morales 1B LA Angels
Yuniesky Betancourt Seattle Mariners SS
Jose Contreras Chicago White Sox P
Danys Baez P DRays
Branyan Peña Atlanta Braves C
Raul Ibañez Seattle Mariners LF

I think it's pretty apparent what I mean about your apologizing for Castro. First time someone refers to him as an assassin, and your reaction is to refer to old attempts on the life of a dictator. Beautiful.

Nice time in Cuba, eh? You do realize that all you were exposed to was the Potemkin-village Cuba they show tourists (and certainly not for average Cubans). Just grotesque.

Finally, and I really don't know why I even bother --the point is not how many MLB players who would otherwise be eligible are banned by Castro, but that he is allowed to ban ANY otherwise eligible players. That is political. That is thuggery. And that apparently is not the concern of the IBAF. We absolutely should not facilitate Castro in this game, nor should we facilitate his secret-police thugs in keeping players under house arrest when they are in this country. If you really want to see his team play that much, take another trip to Cuba.

"You do realize that all you were exposed to was the Potemkin-village Cuba they show tourists (and certainly not for average Cubans)."

once again you are talking out of your ass and this time it was downright offensive, baseball aside for a moment.

i went to cuba with a humanitarian group, Pastors for Peace. I spent my time there travelling to hospitals, orphanages, polyclinics, mental health facilities, and surprise, even a few baseball fields. (more info + pictures: www.pastorsforpeace.org click the tab for cuba). I also slept in a church while i was there, not the Hotel National, so i think it was safe to say i saw cuba for what it was, not what the Communist Party wanted me to see. So once again, your post is undeducated, uninformed and ignorant, just like its poster.

This post was my personal response to your ignorance, now onto baseball (of which you are also very ignorant)...

Raul Ibanez? Raul Ibanez was born in New York!!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raul_Ibanez

I'm not even sure he is of cuban descent.

dude, you gotta learn how to check the validity of your sources.

the link you give lists Ryan Freel, Mike Lowell, Luis Gonzalez (d-backs), bronson arroyo, raul ibanez, and jorge posada as Cuban.

Ryan Freel!!!! the whitest white boy! born in jacksonville. this was the most redicuolus one of all. the dude is a hick.

jorge posada- jorge is as puerto rican as you can get my friend. i dont know where you pulled this one out of but i have an idea...

bronson arroyo- born in key west (possibly cuban descent, not cuban)

Raul Ibanez? Raul Ibanez was born in New York!!!!

Mike Lowell- born in Puerto Rico, he is the only one of the players mentioned to actually be known to be of cuban descent (his parents are cuban, he was born in PR)

I couldnt find info on Gonzo, all i could tell is that he is of cuban descent, grew up in tampa and went to college in alabama. more info if i can find it. im pretty sure he wasnt born in cuba though...

Maybe your link means if your maternal grandfather is a quater cuban that makes you cuban. anyway cuba is not like italy where it has to recruit guys like piazza to play for them just because their heritage is italian in order to field a halfway descent team. cuba is a baseball goldmine.

this was good for a laugh. what a joke.

You really ought to dry up, fidelista. Your cover is finally blown. Here's a little info about Pastors for Peace, a group of Castro-ite shills:

"Another of ANSWER’s steering committee members, Pastors for Peace (PFP), is partially funded by the ARCA foundation, an organization devoted to supporting pro-Castro groups in the United States. In the last decade alone, ARCA has granted well over one hundred thousand dollars to PFP. According to PFP, these grants go towards humanitarian relief cargo such as medicine, computers, and school buses. Of course, PFP fails to note that in Cuba, everything is owned by the state. And that Castro is the State. So essentially, PFP is using ARCA’s grant money to prop up Castro’s worker’s paradise.

"Reports from Cuba indicate that the medicine PFP claims has gone directly to the Cuban people is in fact often sold at the government’s "foreigners only" stores. Since regular Cubans are not allowed to own computers, the government immediately seizes the machines. As for the school buses donated by PFP to the Cuban people? Cuban refugees have reported these buses are now used by the police for raids against anti-Castro dissents.

"Not only do these humanitarian shipments aid Castro, but they are also in flagrant violation of US law. Although the 1992 Cuban Democracy act allows for private humanitarian donations to Cuba, "appropriate licensing and inspection procedures must be met by all donors." PFP has repeatedly failed to follow such procedures, as illustrated in a letter composed by a group of US Congressmen to the Director of the Office of Foreign Asset controls. The letter documents PFP’s numerous violations of the Cuban embargo, concluding that "Pastors for Peace has publicly and intentionally violated the law in an attempt to challenge US policy towards the Castro dictatorship. If Pastors for Peace was truly the peaceful humanitarian organization which it claims to be, it would not make its travel and resources contingent on political posturing, or violently violate the law and injure customs officials."

"In its zeal to bolster Castro’s Communist cabal, the PFP has even resorted to violence in order to defy the Cuban Democracy act. Despite the fact that the PFP could ship humanitarian goods to Cuba if licensed under the Trading with Enemies Act , the group has consistently sought out confrontation with United States authorities. The most violent of these clashes occurred in 1996 when thirty vehicles carrying two hundred activists and three hundred computers was stopped at the Mexican border by US customs officials. PFP activists then exited their caravan and attempted to break through the blockade. A physical confrontation quickly erupted between the Customs officials and the activists, and although PFP profess adherence to "non-violent techniques," the melee resulted in serious injuries to four customs officials, three of which required hospitalization. A single PFP activist received minor injuries.

"PFP has no qualms about placing the health and safety of American citizens at risk, as demonstrated by its involvement with "biorat." In July of 2001, Customs Officials seized more than thirty pounds of "biorat" from PFP activists. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, "Biorat is not admissible into the United States," because "it poses a public health risk worldwide." The report cites a "1996 article in the British medical journal Lancet asserting that the product could easily cause food-borne disease in people."

"Through his sympathizers like Pastors for Peace, Castro continues to export toxins into the U.S. that could harm the American people. The desire of Pastors for Peace to smuggle contraband biochemicals into the United States needs to be scrutinized carefully, especially as our nation remains on alert against biological and chemical terrorism.

http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=6613

From an article in AIN; National News Agency Cuba:

Havana, July 28 (AIN) Members of the 16th Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravan visiting Cuba paid homage to guerrilla commander Ernesto Che Guevara, at the revolution square in the province of Villa Clara.

After placing a floral wreath at the monument to Che, the caravan members visited the memorial treasuring the remains of the Argentinean-Cuban and his comrades killed in Bolivia in the 1960s and brought to Cuba in 1997.

Iris Menendez, representative of the Cuban Friendship Institute in Villa Clara, welcomed the group and explained some of the history of the province.

Were you there for the wreath-laying, "sports fan"?

"Were you there for the wreath-laying, "sports fan"?"

Sorry no, our group split up into 4 sub groups that went to 4 different parts of the country. i was not in villa clara...maybe next time.

i notice you still havent responded to my post which destroyed your rediculous argument about your so called 'cuban' players. whats the matter? cant admit you were wrong?

Tony, you're a moron. Why should Castro be allowed to prevent eligible players from playing? But most of all, you're a moron. When I first strated this discussion, I thought you were a little smarter. My mistake for wasting my time with you. Anyway, I hope you get your chance to return to Cuba to kiss Fidel's feet. Adios.

...and about your quotes...they seem to be largely propaganda from the south florida cuban mafia...but allow me to rebuff some of your 'points' for lack of a better word...

"According to PFP, these grants go towards humanitarian relief cargo such as medicine, computers, and school buses. Of course, PFP fails to note that in Cuba, everything is owned by the state."

This is true. Our donations largely go to grassroots organizations within cuba such as local branches of the Committee for the defense of the revolution (CDF), which is kinda like the 'town hall' of cuba except it is divided up into streets instead of towns. This year alone over 140 tons of aid, mostly medical was given to the cuban PEOPLE. trust me, castro has access to whatever he needs. he doesnt need our stuff.

"Since regular Cubans are not allowed to own computers, the government immediately seizes the machines."

Actually, it was the US government who siezed the computers. there are even pictures of this at pastorsforpeace.org. A story:

Area residents defy U.S. embargo of Cuba
New York Journal News
Saturday, July 23, 2005
By Susan Elan

HIDALGO, Texas: With the aid of a walker, Irving Wolfe, 92, of Pomona in Rockland County marched across the Texas border into Mexico yesterday in an act of defiance of the 40-year U.S. economic, commercial and financial blockade of Cuba.

Wolfe is the oldest member of a 130-person delegation organized by New York-based Pastors for Peace, a group that is transporting 140 tons of medical equipment, computers and other humanitarian aid to hurricane-battered Cuba. The 16th annual caravan has drawn supporters from 48 states, Canada and several European and Caribbean countries.

At the Hidalgo border crossing on Thursday, U.S. customs officials confiscated the computer equipment carried in the convoy of seven brightly painted school buses, also loaded with incubators, powdered milk, school supplies, bicycle parts and medicine. U.S. officials said they would allow only licensed goods across the border.

So, Wolfe grabbed a walker and led a troop of about 30 carrying crutches and canes across the border on foot.

"The U.S. government said we could not bring vehicles across the border," said Wolfe, who helped raise more than $6,000 in Rockland County for humanitarian aid to Cuba this year. "The wheelchairs and other medical equipment are needed by the elderly and infirm."

Molly Millerwise, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of the Treasury, said the group could speed the process by applying for a humanitarian license that would allow them to travel legally to Cuba.

But as part of its protest, the group composed of clergy, students, housewives and professionals, does not apply for the license, saying it would imply acceptance of the embargo. The group travels annually to Mexico, and then skirts U.S. travel restrictions by flying from there to Cuba.

"The blockade denies food, medicine and basic goods to poor people who need it," said Shane Gasteyer, who is participating in his second caravan to Cuba. "It's wrong on a moral level."

The stalemate ended early yesterday after the delegation consolidated the computers in one bus that stayed behind. The Rev. Lucius Walker, executive director of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization and the leader of Pastors for Peace, has remained behind and is trying to bring political pressure to bear to enable the computers they want to take to Cuban school children to leave the United States.

"The Bush administration says no child should be left behind," said Anthony Flynn, who is making his first trip with the caravan, "but they are blocking educational resources that are really needed by children in Cuba."
------------------

"they are also in flagrant violation of US law. Although the 1992 Cuban Democracy act allows for private humanitarian donations to Cuba, "appropriate licensing and inspection procedures must be met by all donors." PFP has repeatedly failed to follow such procedures, as illustrated in a letter composed by a group of US Congressmen to the Director of the Office of Foreign Asset controls. The letter documents PFP’s numerous violations of the Cuban embargo, concluding that "Pastors for Peace has publicly and intentionally violated the law in an attempt to challenge US policy towards the Castro dictatorship. If Pastors for Peace was truly the peaceful humanitarian organization which it claims to be, it would not make its travel and resources contingent on political posturing, or violently violate the law and injure customs officials."

our organization does not apply for a license from the treasury department (the same treasury dept who undermined cuba's wbc bid) on the moral grounds that one should not have to apply for a license to give humanitarian aid to one of our closest neighbors. we (not i) have been doing this for the past 15 years, all without a license.

i also think the claims of violence by P4P are complete fabrications. I do know of incidents where members of Alpha 66, a cuban exile terrorist group based in miami tried to run p4p buses off the road in san diego, but thats another story.

once again i urge you to check the validity of his sources. honestly you sound like a freshman in college (maybe even HS) who cuts and pastes whatever he can find online in 10 minutes and calls it a report.

why am i a moron?

in this thread you have:
-given links with very faulty information
-relied on propoganda to get your point across
-used personal attacks against me in order to make a point (that i still dont see)
-diverted the baseball discussion to a purely political one

and i am a moron? at least i dont think ryan freel should play for the cuban national team

ps i plan on going back to cuba again this summer, provided i can get vacation time from work. youre (and anyone else on this board) welcome to join-
www.pastorsforpeace.org

here we go, the Cuban Ex-Pats team, from espn page 2:

C Eli Marrero Can also play outfield.
1B Rafael Palmeiro May not get past drug test.
2B Yuniesky Betancourt Can also play short.
3B Ramon Vazquez Can also play short.
SS Felipe Lopez Can also play second.
OF Alex Sanchez May not get past drug test, either.
OF Jose Canseco Definitely won't get past drug test.
OF Minnie Minoso Sure he's 83, but he's always ready to play.
SP Jose Contreras World Series experience.
SP Orlando Hernandez World Series experience.
SP Livan Hernandez World Series experience.
RP Danys Baez 41 saves for Devil Rays? Now, that's a closer.

NY Times Op Ed, Jan 11

"Castro at the Bat"

by Roberto González Echevarría, a professor of Hispanic and comparative literature at Yale and author of "The Pride of Havana: A History of Cuban Baseball"

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/11/opinion/11gonzalez.html