Gulp!

Higinio Velez refers to his players as "men without names." He's the manager of the Cuban baseball team playing in the WBC. His men without names are going to the championship game against Japan.

Proud to Be Your Bud, Congressmen, Senators and the old owner of the Texas Rangers have to be puckering up at that one. Sure the Cubans have dominated most of the international competition since, well, forever. But, we were secure, or smug even, in knowing that they'd been beating up a bunch of second-rate countries to win medals and accolades. They'd never beaten major leaguers---not real baseball players. Those guys played here, in the good ol' United States, from April to October, not in some sissy tournament where there was no money on the line. The only times that the Cubans played American teams didn't really count. The Americans teams were peopled with up-and-coming college or minor league players, some career minor leaguers, and in one case, a few has-been major leaguers. The Cubans had never faced a team like the USA's inaugural WBC team: Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Johnny Damon, Derrek Lee, Roger Clemens, Dontrelle Willis, Jake Peavy, Michael Young, Jason Varitek, Ken Griffey, Jr., Vernon Wells, Mark Teixiera and Randy Winn. Didja ever hear of any of them? I think I may have---you know, in All-Star games, in the World Series, in Cy Young voting, in Silver Slugger awards, in Gold Glove awards, and in MVP voting.

Well, the Cubans won't get to play those Americans either. Those guys went 3-3 and were bounced from the tournament by Mexico. In Cuba, the Mexican team is generally known as "ramera." That means "bitch." I guess that means that the USA was knocked out of the first international baseball showcase by Cuba's bitch. That's so nice.

The funny thing is that this Administration tried to keep the Cubans out of the tournament by citing the embargo that has been in effect since 1962. The idea was that, while the Cuban team could play in purely amateur competitions, it could not participate in commerce. In this instance, there is prize money, and that was the basis the Administration used to exclude the Cubans. Fidel Castro showed some cojones and offered to donate the money the Cuban team would win for winning the tournament to the victims of Katrina. We all scoffed at his bravura. Well, as a friend of mine liked to say when we were younger, "Ain't so g-damn funny now."