Trump administration aims to stop professional baseball deal with Cuba

[Judi Lynn]

BY FRANCO ORDOÑEZ
DECEMBER 29, 2018 02:46 PM,
UPDATED 10 HOURS 17 MINUTES AGO

WASHINGTON
The Trump administration is expected to take steps to block a historic agreement that would allow Cuban baseball players from joining Major League Baseball in the United States without having to defect, according to an official familiar with the discussions.

The administration wants to reverse an Obama-era ruling that says the Cuban government doesn’t run the island’s professional baseball league. Such a position gave MLB space to negotiate and reach the deal with Cuban baseball and circumvent the U.S. embargo against Cuba.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, who vowed to fight the deal between Major League Baseball and the Cuban Baseball federation, has been pressing the State Department to review the 2016 ruling and asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo personally to rule that the Cuban government controls the island baseball league and therefore nullify the deal.

“The deal between MLB and the Cuban Baseball Federation is both illegal and immoral,” Rubio told McClatchy. “This terrible one-sided agreement will only enrich the regime and further exploit the Cuban people.”

More:
https://www.mcclatchydc.com/latest-news/article223695430.html

LBN:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142232780

[GatoGordo]

1. The deal is immoral.

The Cuban Baseball Federation isn't some independent, autonomous athletic association. It is nothing more than a bunch of former beisboleros who front for the Castroists.

Under this "deal", the Cuban players are allowed to return to Cuba at their leisure to visit family and friends, providing the Cuban Federation (ahem... Communist government) is paid off. Without a doubt, this payoff comes against their wages. If history has shown us anything, it is that the Cuban government cares only about two things: staying in power and hard currency.

No other country requires such a bribe in order for their players to play in the MLB.

If the Castroists were had a sense of "morality" at all, every dime made by these players would go to the players, and they would be free to come and go to their homeland as they saw fit.

Make no mistake: It is the Cuban government that requires their beisboleros to defect, not the United States. The same thing is going on with their medical missionaries.