Baseball and stupidity

Why, Mike Piazza is going to play for Italy and the president of that country is a dictator who owns the entire media. Give me a free speech speech please. Then let's slap some sense into our Cuba policy.

Cuba won't be allowed to send a team to next year's inaugural World Baseball Classic, the U.S. government told event organizers Wednesday.

The decision by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control was conveyed to Major League Baseball on Wednesday, according to Pat Courtney, a spokesman for the commissioner's office.

A permit from OFAC is necessary because of U.S. laws governing certain commercial transactions with the communist island nation.

UPDATE (9:13pm) on a stupid policy decision:

U.S. bids to host future Olympic Games will be damaged by the Bush administration's decision to prevent Cuba from playing in next year's inaugural World Baseball Classic, a member of the IOC said Thursday.

The U.S. Treasury Department denied a request by Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association for a permit to allow Cuba to send a team.

"It's for baseball to decide, but if they don't make a stand on something like that, then they will have big problems down the road," said Dick Pound, an International Olympic Committee member from Canada.

If not reversed, he said "it would completely scupper any bid" by the United States for the Summer or Winter Games.