A true World Series

Game on! Finally!

As a dyed-in-the-wood baseball fan, I have been looking forward to the first true "World Series," the World Baseball Classic, scheduled to take place this March. It puts teams representing the major baseball-playing nations of the world in a World Cup-type tournament.

But it almost came undone because of the U.S. federal Department of Paranoia. Actually, it was really the Treasury Department, which nearly scotched the entire tournament because of its paranoia about Cuba. The Cubans (if you don't know) are a top baseball power, but the U.S. was going to keep them from competing because the Office of Foreign Assets was scared that some foreign assets would wind up in Cuba, violating the U.S. sanctions that have been in place since ... well, for nearly the last half century.

In the end, the government changed its mind after Cuba promised to donate any money it makes to the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. Of course, it could also be because Major League Baseball was leaning on them pretty heavily.

They were doing the heavy leaning because some of the other Latin American nations threatened a boycott of the tourney, and the IBAF (the international baseball governing body) was ready to pull its sanction.

In short: Change you mind about Cuba, or there won't be a tourney. Baseball must have found a fig leaf for the government to keep them from losing face.

So stupid! The biggest potential Cuba-related problem with the WBC is the very real possibility that some of their bigger stars may wind up defecting, a la Livan Hernandez and Jose Contreras.

Then, there is also the chance that Cuba, which has been kicking butt in international tourneys, may get kicked around. Cuba is part of the group with Puerto Rico, Panama and the Netherlands. (Yes, the Netherlands. Which includes Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao, home of a number of MLB luminaries.)

The U.S. is part of a group with Mexico, Canada and South Africa. Yes, South Africa. Other minnows in the pool are Italy and Australia, which find themselves in the same pool as Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. Guess we know which teams advance from that one.

The last pool includes Korea, China, Japan and Taipei. Pool play is a round-robin--one game each against the other three teams in the pool. The top two teams from each pool advance to a second round of pool play. The semifinals and finals are one game, winner take all. They will be played in San Diego.

I spent a little time today trying--unsuccessfully--to see if the games will be televised. None of the websites I checked are very informative on this point.