This afternoon, the Tampa Bay Rays play the Cuban National team in a game that, on the field, is as meaningless as any other professional baseball game played in mid-March. Off the field, there are hopes to normalize relations with Cuba, and maybe even lift the U.S. economic embargo that’s been in place almost as long as I’ve been alive. It’s nice to think baseball can be some sort of conduit for improvement of living conditions in Cuba. But, let’s not be fooled. Remember Elian Gonzalez? On Thanksgiving Day in 1999, he was found clinging to an inner tube three miles off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was the sole survivor among a dozen trying to get to the U.S. from Cuba. Let that thought marinate for a minute or two. You’re putting your 7-year-old child on a homemade raft to cross what is likely to be more than 120 miles of ocean, knowing that raft could come under fire, because it’s the better alternative to having your son grow up in Cuba. By the way, if the government finds the raft under construction, the builders are likely to be shot on sight. In America, one can make a career of disagreeing with politicians and objecting to the government’s actions. In Cuba, there are people spending a lifetime behind bars, waiting to be executed for it. Baseball can cure all that? I’ve been watching ESPN’s coverage of the Rays game closely; they’ve got every reporter with Cuban heritage on the story, and to say the least it’s been compelling. To get to my point; it’s the Cuban government’s position that its players have always been free to play professionally in the U.S. The government-run baseball federation, however, wants compensated for having developed that talent. That is, of course, illegal in the USA as long as the embargo is in place. No American business is allowed to negotiate with the Cuban government for any reason, period. For those of us of a certain age, we’re at least vaguely familiar with how Communism works. The premise is that everyone has the same level of prosperity; the reality is only the government has anything to give, and it doesn’t give much to its people. According to those reports on ESPN, the average worker in Cuba makes $300 a year. Take a moment and really let that sink in. Yes, in America we have our own issues. Up until the last 20 years or so, we’ve been able to work through those issues in a way that generally leaves no one fully satisfied, but things move in a forward direction. Yes, we’ve had famous people say they’d leave the country if so-and-so were elected president (this isn’t the first election cycle with such promises made) but as near as I can tell, no one has actually packed up and left. But no one is risking their lives to leave here. Only to get here. The television here in the newsroom is filled with images from Brussels, Belgium, showing the latest of how crazy the world is becoming. To think sports can cure the world’s ills may be foolhardy. But it can be a foundation to that end. And, hopefully, that is what today’s baseball game is about. But it’s more likely Major League Baseball and the USA is being played the fool by another Communist propaganda machine that promises but never delivers. Time will tell, but judging from the pictures, descriptions and accounts over the weekend from Havana, a place time seems to have forgotten ... well, this optimist isn’t ready to take the bait.
