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• Baseball reapplied, Puerto Rico protest

  23Dec
  Categories: Cuba, Pool C, Puerto Rico, WBC2006 Comments: 1

  Baseball officials reapplied for a permit that would allow Cuba to join World Baseball Classic and Puerto Rico’s baseball federation also announced that San Juan would withdraw as a host city if the Cubans were not allowed to participate

  Baseball spokesman Pat Courtney said a new application was submitted to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. The commissioner’s office and the players’ assiciation had said they planned to address government concerns and ensure that no money would go from U.S. entities to the Cubans.

  Israel Roldan, president of the Baseball Federation of Puerto Rico, and Hector Cardona, president of the Puerto Rico’s Olympic Committee, opposed the decision by the U.S. Government.

  “What we are saying is that we should renounce our position as host if Cuba is not permitted to compete,” Roldan said. Roldan sent a letter to International Baseball Federation President Aldo Notari saying the island would decline to be a venue because of the U.S. government’s decision.

  Notari said he sympathized with Roldan’s view but said it was up to Major League Baseball to move the games out of Puerto Rico, which is scheduled to host games during the first and second rounds. “I won’t enter into a problem with the national committee,” Notari said. “The position of Roldan is very good and very clear.”

  Cardona also mentioned that he was talking to other Latin American officials to enlist their support in persuading the U.S. government to change its position.

  Cuba is scheduled to play Puerto Rico, Panama and the Netherlands in Puerto Rico in the first round of the tournament on March 7-10.

• Australia play exhibition game with Red Sox

  23Dec
  Categories: Australia, Pool D, WBC2006 Comments: 0

  
  The Australia team of World Baseball Classic will train at Fort Myers and play an exhibition game on March 5 with Boston Red Sox.

  Australia, who won the silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, will hold a training camp at the Red Sox’s minor league base in Fort Myers, Florida from March 3-6. The Aussie will play against Red Sox in an exhibition game at 6:05 p.m. on Sunday, March 5 at City of Palms Park.

  Tickets will be half-price, as the games for the Red Sox with college on March 3, are available online at www.redsox.com or by calling (617) 482-4SOX. The City of Palms Park ticket office is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

  Adrian Burnside, Trent Durrington, Justin Huber, John Stephens and Glenn Williams have agreed to join World Baseball Classic for Australia.

  Australia is managed by Jon Deeble, the Red Sox coordinator for Pacific Rim scouting, will play against Italy on March 7th, Venezuela on March 9th and DominicanRepublic on March 10th.

• Cuban defectors organize

  23Dec
  Categories: Cuba, Pool C, WBC2006 Comments: 0

  Numerous Cuban-born baseball players who defected to the United States said they are forming an association and will fight to be allowed to play in professional tournaments, include World Baseball Classic next March.

  Because U.S. Treasury Department denied a license that would allow Cuba to participate World Baseball Classic, Cuban national team can not complete the inaugural 16-nation tournament.

  Due to the commissioner’s office of Major League Baseball, in agreement with the International Federation Baseball and the MLB Players’ Association, they will not allow any independent teams to play in the WBC.

  Even so, players who have major league experience include Rene Arocha and Osvaldo Fernandez, met with U.S. representatives Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Mario Diaz-Balart and unveiled their plans to form the association and send letters to Major League Baseball, the player’s union and President Bush asking that they be allowed to represent Cuba.

  “We represent Cuban baseball because we were born, were raised with and played that baseball in Cuba,” Eddie Oropesa, who has played for the Chicago Cubs, Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres, said. “But because professional baseball is not allowed in Cuba we had to defect and leave our families behind and begin a new life.”

  The players and representatives said they have at least 30 professionals who would form the team. Although they were not present, Washington Nationals pitchers Livan Hernandez and Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Orlando Hernandez, support the idea.

  “Cuban baseball players are only asking to have the same rights as other major leaguers, and to be able to participate in the World Classic and other such events,” said Cuban-American Diaz-Balart. “It would be totally unacceptable and an act of discrimination if these Cuban players do not have the chance of taking part in the World Classic.”

  “MLB is willing to violate its own rules to support a terrorist government like Cuba’s, who made professional baseball disappear more than 40 years ago. The World Classic is a tournament for professional teams,” said Diaz-Balart.

  “Cuban baseball players have put together a good idea by proposing to create this association, but they will not be able to participate in this year’s World Classic with such a team,” said Lou Melendez, vice president of Major League Baseball. “The tournament is sanctioned by the International Federation, of which Cuba is a member. The International Federation will not approve of any unofficial team”.

  “Inviting a team other than the national team would bring that sanctioning into question,” Paul Archey, Major League Baseball’s senior vice president for international business said. Officials are still hoping that Cuba could be allowed to play. “We are in communication with the Cuba baseball federation as well as the Department of Treasury to try to address that concern.”

  “It is completely irrational,” Lazaro Herrera Martinez, a spokesman for the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C., said earlier. “For us, baseball is our national sport … it is an activity that has nothing to do with politics.”

  Observers think their effort is a long shot. ”It would be very unusual for there to be two groups that have the designation from the international federation to manage that sport in a given country,” Darryl Seibel, a spokesman for the U.S. Olympic Committee told the Miami Herald. The U.S. Olympic Committee recognizes the same international certification procedures that will govern the baseball tournament.

• Cuba offers to donate tournament money

  23Dec
  Categories: Cuba, Pool C, WBC2006 Comments: 0

  According to Reuters, Cuba said it would donate any money received from World Baseball Classic to Hurricane Katrina victims if the U.S. Government reverses a controversial decision to deny Cuba’s participation.

  Fidel Castro had given the go-ahead permission for Cuba to participate the inaugural World Baseball Classic. But Cuba would have needed a special license from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which enforces the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba.

  The United States Government denied Major League Baseball a license that would allow Cuba to play in the inaugural World Baseball Classic. The decision got protests from the U.S. Olympic Committee, Major League Baseball, numerous politicians and others.

  Based on the regulation of tournament, Cuba would get the 1 percent of tournament revenues and 5 percent if it won, that is not allowed by U.S. Treasury Department.

  “The Cuban baseball federation, in an effort to find options, would be ready for the money corresponding to its participation in the classic to go to the victims of Hurricane Katrina left homeless in New Orleans,” the federation said in a letter to Major League Baseball.

  Cuba labeled the Bush administration as “shameful” and “absurd” and “having nothing to do with sports.”

  During second day of regular sessions of the Cuba’s National Assembly, Fidel Castro said that the Bush administration was wrong to deny Cuba to participate World Baseball Classic next spring.

  “He is very much a fool,” Castro said of Bush. “He doesn’t know who the Cuban baseball players are, or that they are Olympic and world champions. If he knew, he would know something about this country’s government.”

  Antonio Munoz, a businessman who agreed to pay millions of dollars to bring the games to Puerto Rico, thinks the Treasury Department will reverse its decision. “All efforts are being made to get Cuba to come and participate and I think we will succeed,” Munoz said.

  Below is the Full Letter of Cuban Baseball to MLB by Prensa Latina translation.

  Havana, Cuba, December 14, 2005

  Mr. Paul Archey

  First Vice President

  Major League Baseball, Inc.

  New York, USA

  Dear Mr. Archey:

  This afternoon, Wednesday, December 14, we received a fax from your office informing us that the Office of Foreigner Activities Control (OFAC), in a letter from its director Robert Warner, refused the Cuban National Team´s participation in the World Baseball Classic.

  The reasons alleged by the aforementioned office for the refusal are based on those established in the shameful Treasury Department Regulation 31 CFR, part 515, re: control of Cuban Assets.

  For any person halfway rational, such a decision is absurd and arbitrary. Rage and political obstinacy make it impossible once again for the world to enjoy a truly representative display of universal baseball.

  How can one speak of a World Baseball Classic in which the Cuban Olympic and World Championship team is not represented?

  We defend baseball and its significance for our people.

  We cannot allow ourselves to be dragged along by the ultraconservatives characterizing the present United States government.

  Once again we are open to seek solutions and ways to evaluate possible participation of our team.

  It is not for the money that the OFAC puts forward as the motive for our interest in competing. We are a federation from a poor but dignified country; our only plan is to cooperate so that baseball continues developing and achieves inclusion again in the Olympic program in the near future. We never compete for money.

  The Cuban Baseball Federation, in order to offer options, would be willing to donate the proceeds corresponding from its participation in the Classic to:

  The victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

  My dear Mr. Archey, we wish to say that we appreciate the ethical position of the Major League and the Association of Major League Players with respect to the possible participation of Cuba in the Classic.

  We will be awaiting your response.

  Respectfully.

  Carlos Rodriguez Acosta

  President

  Cuban Baseball Federation

  Cuba, a powerhouse of amateur baseball, won the gold medal for baseball at the 1992, 1996 and 2004 Olympics, falling to the United States in the finals at the 2000 Sydney Games.