 | SZinHonshu (45)
03/05/2006 | It would have been ridiculous to exclude the Cubans. Embargo or no embargo. It's a baseball tournament for chrissakes! I'm glad the government decided not to humiliate itself and reversed course as to the idea of barring the participants from our nearby neighbor.
If I were handicapping this tournament I'd select Team Castro, along with the squads from the United States, Japan and the Dominican Republic as the ones I deem most likely to win the whole shebang. During the time that baseball has been played in the Olympics (first introduced as an exhibition sport in '84), the Cubans have commonly been considered the favorites to win.
The only thing that crosses my mind in this regard is that Cuba has lost a significant amount of talent to defections. Obviously, many of the best players who currently toil in the capitalist bastion of Major League Baseball will not be suiting up for their island homeland.
(6 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | zuchinibut (44)
03/04/2006 | Its hard to tell how good Cuba will be, since all of their players on the national team have not played professionally outside of Cuba. However, Cuba has been traditionally good in amateur competitions and puts a lot more emphasis on its national team than probably any other country. Fidel was supposedly a good ball player too if you believe what he says.
(3 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
