MLB Commissioner Bud Selig sitting alongside Fidel
Castro during Sunday's exhibition game is an image that
"stings and sickens still, three days later," according to
Dan LeBatard of the MIAMI HERALD. LeBatard, who is of Cuban
descent, writes that by seeing Selig attend the game with
Castro, much of the U.S., "not understanding the pain of
Cubans at all, shrugs and says that, hey, that feel-good
game in Cuba sure was neat, huh?" LeBatard: "Well, no, it
wasn't neat. What it was, more than anything, was
appalling." But Selig called LeBetard yesterday and told
him he gave careful consideration to playing the game: "I'm
always very deliberate. But once the State Department
decided this would be the linchpin of a sports-and-cultural
exchange, I had to represent baseball ... in an appropriate
manner" (MIAMI HERALD, 3/31). USA TODAY's Jon Saraceno
writes that Selig, Castro and Orioles Owner Peter Angelos
sitting together resembled "tyranny and greed holding
hands." Saraceno: "Tell me you weren't disgusted the other
day when you saw [Castro] stuffed between those bookend
baseball ambassadors in Cuba. ... I saw a closed society
playing us like an alto sax" (USA TODAY, 3/31).