Sports Illustrated is reporting that the U.S. Treasury Department has, as of about 30 minutes ago, approved MLB’s request for a license to allow Cuba to play in the World Baseball Classic.
It’s on now, folks. And I couldn’t be happier.
I think that this is great news.
I’ll like it even better if one of the defectors ends up on the Dodgers.
Oh good. Because if they’d lost the sanction and cancelled the effing games, I’d have been pissed. I had concert tickets I refunded so that I could go to the game instead!
Darnit, you had me thinking that Phred was gonna protest in Cuba. I’d be hallelujah’ing too right now if that were true.
Great news!
Heh. Sorry about that, but I don’t think it would have fit any other way.
I hate it when someone comes into a thread just to say “meh”.
But I’ll do it anyway.
Meh.
I’m not a fan of the whole idea. I couldn’t care less who wins. I think it will have a bad effect on spring training and on each team’s ability to build a team in a short amount of time. The shit will really hit the fan if a star gets hurt during this meaningless tournament.
I am hoping for mass Cuban defections though. Any more Hernandez brothers?
Loach, not to pick on you specifically or anything, but I don’t get the apathy about this tournament that I’ve heard from a lot of people. I can only attribute it to what one of the ESPN guys said the other day: the U.S. has never really had a natural baseball rivalry, so it’s not as big as it is in Latin America or Asia. I think that’ll change after this year, though, especially if the final is U.S. vs. Dominican Republic like we’re all hoping.
And actually, several teams are looking at this as a good thing because while they may be losing some superstars for a few weeks (and, God forbid, longer if there’s an injury) they get a much better look at the marginal guys who get invites to camp.
Yay! I’m excited! This, of course, should have been resolved much sooner, I believe, but at least it’s done. When are the games supposed to start?
The apathy comes from the fact that we are not looking at any real rivalries. Instead it is a bunch of players from American teams going to play a meaningless exihibtion tourney and then coming back to their real teams. That’s were the real rivalry is. I may check out some of the games just because I love baseball but I will be about as emotionally involved in it as I would when watching a preseason game. That is, not at all. I would rather watch a Yankee /Red Sox game in April than the final of the tounament.
There are some serious rivalries in this tournament. Japan-South Korea, the Dominican versus EVERY Central American and Caribbean team and Puerto Rico versus most of the Caribbean are heated. The Caribbean Series is a huge deal, and that’s going to transfer to the WBC.
Pool A (Asia) starts March 3, and the other three pools start the next week.