Bush caves in on baseball classic
Campaign News | Thursday, 20 January 2005
Cuba will play and donate earnings to Hurricane Katrina victims
NEW YORK Jan 20, 2006 - Cuba will be allowed to play in the World Baseball Classic, after all.
The Bush administration caved in to international pressure nd issued a license Friday allowing the Cubans to participate in the 16-team tournament.
Baseball's first application was denied in mid-December by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, but the commissioner's office and the players' association reapplied after Cuba said it would donate any profits it receives to victims of Hurricane Katrina.
"The president wanted to see it resolved in a positive way," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "Our concerns were centered on making sure that no money was going to the Castro regime and that the World Baseball Classic would not be misused by the regime for spying. We believe the concerns have been addressed."
U.S. laws aimed at punishing Fidel Castro's communist government prohibit certain commercial transactions with Cuba, generally attempting to deny money.
"Working closely with World Baseball Classic Inc. and the State Department, we were able to reach a licensable agreement that upholds both the legal scope and the spirit of the sanctions," Treasury spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said.
"This agreement ensures that no funding will make its way into the hands of the Castro regime. The Treasury is pleased to now be able to issue this license and looks forward to seeing all of the teams showcase their talents on the international stage."
After the initial rejection, the International Baseball Federation threatened to withdraw its sanction of the tournament if Cuba was not allowed to participate and Puerto Rico threatened to withdraw as a host.
"We were always positive," said Antonio Munoz, the promoter who paid millions of dollars to stage the first two rounds in Puerto Rico. "There were some negative people, but they were wrong in the end. I always said there was no Plan B. There was only one plan: That Cuba would come and that all efforts should be focused on obtaining approval."
http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory?id=1526792
Cuba offers to play baseball for homeless of New Orleans
HAVANA 22 Dec: Cuba said on Thursday it would donate its revenues from a world baseball tournament to Hurricane Katrina victims if the Bush administration reverses its decision to bar Cuba's participation.
"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 U.S. Major League Baseball sent a week ago and released on Thursday.
The United States denied Major League Baseball a license that would allow Cuba to play in the inaugural World Baseball Classic in March on the grounds Cuba would reap the 1 percent of tournament revenues due each participant and 5 percent if it won.
Cuba on Thursday labeled the Bush administration's position as "shameful" and "absurd" and "having nothing to do with sports."
The decision also brought protests from the U.S. Olympic Committee, Major League Baseball, numerous politicians and others.
Puerto Rico's baseball federation announced on Thursday it would not host games if the Cubans were not allowed to participate.
The World Baseball Classic is an 18-day, 16-team World Cup-style tournament scheduled to begin on March 3 that will bring together some of the world's best baseball players on teams representing their home countries.
Cuban President Fidel Castro, an ideological foe of the United States for more than 40 years, had given the go-ahead for his Communist nation to participate.
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 Treasury Department refused to grant the license.
"Generally speaking, the Cuba embargo prohibits entering into contracts in which Cuba or Cuban nationals have an interest," Treasury spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said in a written statement.
The tournament starts in Tokyo and ends in San Diego and many of the games will be played in the United States, which has been a magnet for the defection of a host of Cuba's best players seeking multimillion-dollar big-league contracts.
Despite the drain of talent, Cuba won the gold medal for baseball at the 1992, 1996 and 2004 Olympics.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-12-23T034120Z_01_SIB313234_RTRUKOC_0_US-CUBA-USA-BASEBALL.xml&archived=False
US Olympic boss tells Bush to let Cuba play in the Baseball World Classic
Washington 19 Dec: U.S. Olympic Committee Chairman Peter Ueberroth called on the Bush administration to reverse its decision to keep Cuba out of next year's World Baseball Classic.
Ueberroth, a former baseball commissioner and head of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, said last week's decision by the Treasury Department to deny Cuba a permit to play in the 16-team event will damage American efforts to host the Olympics in the future. Olympic host countries must guarantee all nations can participate.
"It is important to any future bid city from the United States that this be reversed," Ueberroth said.
When Ueberroth headed the 1984 Olympics, he worked with the Reagan administration to ensure that Cuba would be allowed to participate. Cuba ultimately chose to join a boycott of the Los Angeles Games but did send athletes to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, where it won nine gold medals and 25 medals in all.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2005/12/20/SPGU8GAQAS1.DTL
US bans Cuba from world baseball event
MIAMI 14 Dec: The United States has denied Major League Baseball a license that would allow Cuba to play in the inaugural World Baseball Classic next March, The Miami Herald reported on Wednesday.
The decision came after Cuban-American members of Congress urged the U.S. Treasury Department to veto the license application and asked Major League Baseball to drop the Cuban team, the Herald said in a story posted on its Web site.
"There's always the option of an appeal. Major League Baseball's official position is: we want Cuba to play," Ronaldo Peralta of the MLB office in the Dominican Republic told the newspaper.
The World Baseball Classic is an 18-day, 16-team World Cup-style tournament scheduled to begin on March 3 that will bring together some of the world's best baseball players on teams representing their home countries.
Cuban President Fidel Castro had given the go-ahead for Cuba to participate.
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 blockade.
The Treasury Department declined to comment on the report.
"It is our policy that we do not confirm, deny or discuss licenses; therefore I cannot comment (on) a specific license request," Treasury spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said in a written statement. "Generally speaking, the Cuba embargo prohibits entering into contracts in which Cuba or Cuban nationals have an interest."
The tournament starts in Tokyo and ends in San Diego and many of the games will be played in the United States.
Cuba won the gold medal for baseball at the 1992, 1996 and 2004 Olympics, falling to the United States in the finals at the 2000 Games.
Republican Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Cuban-American from Miami, urged Major League Baseball to allow Cuban defectors already playing for professional teams to form a Cuban team in the tournament, the Herald said.
Letting Cuba play would "allow a state sponsor of terrorism to use U.S. currency to finance its machinery of oppression," the Herald quoted Diaz-Balart as saying in a letter to Treasury Secretary John Snow.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=sportsNews&storyID=2005-12-15T031508Z_01_ARM511662_RTRUKOC_0_US-CUBA-USA-BASEBALL.xml
