It started with Wednesday's loss by Team USA to Canada. That landed it on the back pages of the New York tabloids and had people discussing it on sports-talk stations like NYC's WFAN all day. The US, after 1 game, was in peril of not making it out of Round 1 of pool play. Yesterday, any fears of that happening were allayed when the US beat South Africa (Baseball in South Africa? Who knew?) 17 - 0. It's not often that you see a baseball team put up two TDs and a field goal, but it happens. Just add South Africa, and you're there.
The bigger and more interesting story to folks of a wonkish bent was what happened Thursday in Puerto Rico as Cuba faced off against the Netherlands. In the stands behind home plate, Jose Garcia, a Cuban exile living in Puerto Rico, created an international incident when he flashed a homemade sign reading "ABAJO FIDEL" (loose translation: Down with Fidel). The reason this was such a big deal is that the game was being carried live on Cuban national television. Egg was all over Castro's face.
Fidel isn't big on this kind of thing, and usually reacts by throwing people in jail or organizing meaningless compulsory protests in Havana. In this case, in addition to calling for the predictable street protest, Cuba demanded action from Major League Baseball, hinting that they'd pull out of the tournament if MLB didn't put an end to the anti-Castro messages:
Some members of the Cuban team left their dugout to watch the incident before continuing with the game. But afterward, Cuba refused to participate in the mandatory postgame news conference and, according to a high-ranking San Juan police official, threatened to pull out of the event.
''What happened was a great provocation on the part of four or five counter revolutionaries using signs and offensive language that violated the established norms of the organizing committee,'' said a statement released by the Cuban team. ``The local police, instead of fixing the problem, showed their support for [the protesters].''
The statement went on to say the Cuban delegation would meet with Major League Baseball officials early today to determine ''a solution'' before tonight's scheduled game with Puerto Rico.
MLB capitulated and pulled a Google as they did their part to help crush the dissent. Prior to the start of Friday's matchup between Puerto Rico and Cuba, "local organizers" banned the display of signs that are political in nature. To anyone who isn't drinking the Kool-Aid being served by the league that this is some sort of world-class, important international competition, this is completely unsurprising.
After all, if Cuba bailed from the tournament, those Cuba caps and jerseys would not exactly be popular items at the souvineur stands, and the whole point of this tournament is to make money for Major League Baseball. Lord knows it isn't about the highest level of competition. If that was the case, it wouldn't be held during Spring Training. Some of the best players aren't even in the tournament, for crying out loud.
Friday night, before a sign-free audience, Team Cuba took the field against Puerto Rico. An official government communication sent out earlier had urged the players to "respond to the provocations with hits, home runs, strikes, outs."
They lost to Puerto Rico 12-2. Sounds like they got the "outs" part right, at least.
Cuba's next game is Sunday, when they open Round 2 in an all-Communist matchup against Venezuela. In a tournament that, ridiculously, allows ties in baseball games, I wonder if we can get another exception made to the rules.
That's one game where I'd be happy to see both nations lose.
Alex Nunez blogs at The Noonz Wire.