Brilliant response.

Val-
Excellent. Hopefully that will get 'em thinking.
~Ana Z.

Well said, very well said, Val.
Please let us know if this journalist --or Major League Baseball-- ever extends you the courtesy of a reply, though I doubt either one will.
JulioZ

Thanks again Val!

I love baseball, Val. I'd like to see Cubans free to play ball (and work and live) wherever they please. The only way this will happen is if fidel and his like are gone. I hope I live to see the day. Until then, we should continue to 'do the right thing'. Great post!

Good response Val! MLB today is definitely all about the money, so their stance is not surprising.
MLB, just like the Melia Hotels and others don't care for the plight of the 11 million Cubans as much as for their own ability to profit from the tragedy.
With the MSM's help, castro keeps getting good publicity as a baseball player in uniform instead of as the bloodthirsty tyrant that he is.

It is beyond time to strike out fidel!

!Ya No Mas!

I agree totally. But I fear that politicians will buckle to the almighty dollar. Lets hope this doesn't happen.

Val, although I don't agree with banning Cuba from the tournament, your letter to Bauman was excellent. The guy doesn't seem very open to hearing about Cuba and castro's record, so I don't think you'll get an intelligent response if you get one at all.

hey val-

great response to his column, although sometimes i think that taking time to write to these people is futile. i have been a fan of baseball for a long time, however, i would have to say that I am no fan of major league baseball and what it has become under selig.

tony

Robert,

I respect your opinion and just want to state that this is one of those issues where my personal decision was difficult. In some ways I do wish the Cuban team were able to play. However, given that this is event is clearly yet another venue for fidel castro to further his propaganda, I must make what I believe to be the moral choice and agree that the team should not be allowed in.

I cant, in good conscience, sit and watch a Cuban baseball team playing on US soil while there are millions on the island that are kept prisoners. Not to mention the Ladies in White, or the countless thousands who have won the "lottery" in Cuba and fidel still doesnt let them leave.

I hear you Val, believe me. My most recent post over at 26th Parallel agrees with most of your feelings. It isn't a decision that I arrived at with ease.

Honestly, I won't lose any sleep if Cuba isn't allowed to play.

I have only one question...we know what this guy wants for Christmas...I'm sure he'll get something, even if it's not what he wants...

...but how about the wishes of millions of Cubans? Guess what...millions of Cubans don't even make Christmas wishes!!! What for? They know all they'll be getting is more of the same they have been getting for years: escaces y falta de libertad-

I hate to say it, but I agree with 26th parallel. Sometimes, you have to get your hands a little dirty and play with devil himself. The end usually does not justify the means, but I would argue that in this case it does - the means in this case - winning PR by letting Cubans to play/perform in the U.S. - is harmless, and the end - winning public sympathy for the real Cuba - would be priceless.

You know, I think the U.S. has different motives for not letting Cubans in: they don't want another massive defection. This is the thing that really irks me about U.S. policy in Cuba and it makes it fundamentally flawed and ironic, and I bet it played into the State dep'ts decision. To get out of Cuba on a tourist visa to Miami or wherever in the U.S., you need an interview at the interests section. Well, basically, you have to tell them that you love Castro, that you're integrated into the socialist government and that Cuba is a workers' paradise. I'm exaggerating a little, but you do have to say something like that, or else, they view you as a person who wants to stay in the U.S. on a tourist visa. So because they're allowing all the Cubans that pledge their allegiance to communism into the U.S., you see all sorts of "ex-commies" in Miami..almost ala the last scene of Marathon Man where people identify their former torturer on the streets of NYC. I have heard about reports of exiles seeing people who used to be unabashed communists in Cuba - and remain so (though they tone it down, of course) in Miami!!! I think this is outrageous, alebit anecdotal. Of course, you can argue - oh, they were forced to be communists in Cuba - blah blah blah. Sure, every Cuban is to a certain extent forced to be communist, but there are clearly haves and have-nots in Cuba according to your allegiance to Castro, and some people in Miami were most definitely haves back on the island. Sorry, I had to vent, and I don't know what the solution is, but something has to change. You either have to go full force, or not at all, and the U.S. has come up with bad policy to solve this problem - and everyone, the left, right, centrists are all to blame. Not one administration has come up with a clear, effective, good policy towards Cuba. Not one. Maybe it's just too difficult...

Did everyone get a load of the new Cuba policy coming? It looks like political posturing for Condi Rice who rumor has it would be on a ticket should Hillary be on a ticket.
Just more hot air being blown toward Cuba.
What will speed democracy in Cuba is action and not planning on how fast we could ship Coca-Cola and cellphones to Cuba when its open. Sorry for the sarcasm, but it is ridiculous that Missionaries are not allowed into Cuba by the U.S., but Baseball players and other celebrities are.
Does anyone know under what license Danny Glover, Oliver Stone and the like get into Cuba with? What a joke!

Val,what a great response. I had family playing baseball even before the Batista coup! I think, there is not one of us here for whom this hasn't been a hard personal decision. It certainly was for me (a tough decision) to side with the ban, from the view point of the players. I honestly fail to see how allowing the baseball team would benefit the anti-Castro groups.

Mr. Bauman is one of them immoral amoralists that this world is full of.

Let them play!!! Let them play!!! Let them play!!!

Let them play........in their own playground-

And you are not the one...NEO is the one-

lincoln diaz balart was on dan lebetards show yesterday.. prior to the show i sent an email to dan (hes been on this topic for a while now) and mentioned how the cuban soccer team got in to play in the gold cup with no problems.. lebetard said he would mention it to lincoln.. well, he did.. lincolns answer was "i wasnt even aware that had happened" basically, because he is a baseball fan, and didnt pay attention to soccer.. anyways, lincoln isnt sounding too sure that it will stick.. some are using the "it may affect future olympic bids" to get it overturned, but he also mentioned that there maybe a push to get cubans outside of cuba to field a team.. looks like this story has a few more chapters..

Wouldn't it be better to let them play and turn this into a PR nightmare for castro? I mean the government has flaunted their dominance in Olympic and amateur tournaments for decades and insisted they could compete with the professionals.

Well, they would be fourth or fifth in this tourney behind the U.S., Puerto Rico, the DR and Venezuela. How would castro spin a fifth place finish in this tourney? He couldn't.

And what about defections. Wouldn't a top player defecting in Puerto Rico or the U.S. do more damage PR-wise then the small amount of money being made from this tourney?

I just feel we (cuban americans) are made to look bad over this, while castro scores another victory.

I thought castro wouldn't be stupid enough to field a team in tourney, but it appears the US has given him an easy excuse.

I wonder if Lincoln even remembers that one of the Cuban soccer players from the Gold Cup defected and is on the verge of playing for the MLS.