Let’s allow entire world to play ball

If you decide to invite the world to a party, that means everybody gets to come.

Not just the countries that are your friends or that you can tolerate for a while. Everybody. Otherwise, what you’re billing as a housewarming for the entire neighborhood is really more like an exclusive get-together. When word gets out that you invited everyone but that weird couple with all the cats, you look like a mean-spirited jerk.

Which is why the U.S. Treasury Department was smart to relent Friday and let Cuba play in the upcoming World Baseball Classic.

As former owner of the Texas Rangers, President Bush knows how big a deal this tournament is in the baseball world. It’s the first to feature all of the world’s top players on their national teams. Derek Jeter, Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez and Barry Bonds have signed on for the United States. Japan has Ichiro Suzuki. Freddy Garcia, Johan Santana and Carlos Zambrano are supposed to pitch for Venezuela. The Dominican Republic plans to bring Albert Pujols, Pedro Martinez and Manny Ramirez.

Naturally, Cuba wanted in on the fun, too. Baseball is the island’s national sport, and Cuba won Olympic gold medals in 1992, 1996 and 2004.

But the Treasury Department stepped in and decided to play bouncer, initially rejecting baseball’s application to allow Cuba to play in the United States. Seems a permit is needed because of the 45-year-old trade embargo, designed to undermine Fidel Castro’s communist government by keeping it from getting U.S. currency.

The U.S. government finally backed down after Castro said he’d donate any money Cuba earned to victims of Hurricane Katrina.

“The president wanted to see it resolved in a positive way,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said in an e-mail to the Associated Press. “Our concerns were centered on making sure that no money was going to the Castro regime and that the World Baseball Classic would not be misused by the regime for spying.”

Riiight.

Look, the United States might not like Castro, but playing politics with sports is risky business.

There is, first of all, the hypocrisy factor. Cuban athletes have been allowed to play in the United States plenty of times without problems. Three years after the Atlanta Olympics, Cuba’s national team came back to play an exhibition game against the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards.

Granted, the administrations have changed since then. But Cuba had a team at the world gymnastics championships when they were held in Anaheim, Calif., in 2003. There didn’t seem to be much of a fuss over Cuba’s national soccer team coming to the United States last summer for the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

If punishing objectionable regimes was what this was all about, why only single out Cuba? There are a few other countries in the 16-team tournament that the United States has issues with these days.

But the biggest problem in all of this was the message it sent to the rest of the international sports world.

Sports is one of the few things that can bridge the ugly disagreements between countries and cultures, and make everybody equal. It’s what makes events like the Olympics and the World Cup so special. For a few weeks, the world gets to put aside its grown-up problems and play together like children.

By telling Cuba it wasn’t welcome at the World Baseball Classic, the United States was saying it was bigger than the games. It would play along, but only on its terms. That’s not only petty, it’s arrogant.

Don’t think the rest of the world didn’t notice. International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said earlier this week that if the United States wants to bid for the 2016 Summer Games, the government has to promise not to pull something like this again.

“We would need to have guarantees in terms of immigration, of all athletes and all countries,” Rogge told the AP. “These are things we need to have.”

When New York lost a bid for the 2012 Games last summer, much of the blame fell on lingering questions about the Olympic stadium. The New Yorkers also didn’t have the star power of winner London and Paris, which had Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac stumping for them.

But the United States’ reputation around the world didn’t help New York’s cause. There are plenty who view our government as a bully, and barring Cuba from the World Baseball Classic would have only reinforced that image.

Fortunately, the government backed off. But in the future, it might want to skip the posturing. Just be a gracious host, and let everyone enjoy the games.

Otherwise, it might find the world has other plans when the United States wants to throw a party.