Community | November 14, 2009 | 3 comments

Can Baseball bring US and Cuba together?

source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33925773/ns/world_news-americas/

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"Pingpong diplomacy" thawed relations between the United States and China in 1971. Can "baseball diplomacy" help do the same for the U.S. and Cuba?

Americans ranging from 12-year-old ballplayers to softballing senior citizens are visiting the communist island to engage in their own kind of field work, and there's talk of another trip by a major league team.

These bat-and-ball initiatives come as the Obama administration takes steps toward improving relations with the Cold War rival, such as loosening financial and travel restrictions on Americans with relatives on the island.

Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos, who staged exhibition games with the Cuban national team in Havana and Baltimore a decade ago, told The Associated Press that he hopes to so again next spring. Two groups of baseball youngsters from Florida are planning to visit next year as well.

Baseball enthusiasts feel the time is right for this type of outreach. In September, the U.S. sent a senior diplomat to Havana for unannounced meetings with Cuban officials — believed to be the highest-level talks between the two nations in decades. And last month, Cuba's foreign minister said his country is willing to hold talks with the United States "on any level."

If Angelos gets his way, next spring his Orioles will play in Cuba, as well as host the Cuban national team, in a repeat of the exhibition games staged in 1999 during the Clinton administration. He said he decided to do so now because of the Obama administration's overtures toward Cuba.

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3 comments // Can Baseball bring US and Cuba together?

  • samthesixth
  • Saladin
    • 0
      Saladin  

    • I sure hope it will.

      It's getting a little ridiculous that we've pretend our neighbors to the south don't exist, especially since any animosity in our relationship is almost entirely our fault.

    • 2 years ago
  • jpfdeuce
    • 0
      jpfdeuce  
    • Saladin:

      And the common argument (the one not delving deeply into the entire situation ) is "well, if they didn't have nukes pointed at us in the past..." I bring up THAT argument because I've faced it here on Current before.

      And it's ridiculous. That was 46 years ago. The cold war is over.

      Now, I get some of the other points people bring up (Human rights abuses) but they're in place in China and we're more than willing to trade with China. We've had relations with other communist regimes and regimes with poor human rights records. We only worsen the conditions by acting hostilely toward the island because we're encouraging isolation. We're encouraging a social and political vacuum in Cuba. Change won't come that way.

      "Baseball diplomacy" is a step in the right direction.

    • 2 years ago
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