Where to start, where to start? We aren’t even into the real March Madness yet, but madness ensues, or is ensuing…which is it?
“Down With Fidel.” At the World Baseball Classic, during a game in Puerto Rico between Cuba and the Netherlands, someone in the stands held up a handwritten sign with the words “Down With Fidel” printed on them. Oh those wacky Dutch! It’s ironic that a political international incident occurs during a game that features Holland, a country that is known for its liberal positions on issues like drugs, prostitution and euthanasia. Well we don’t know that the person holding the sign was from the Netherlands. Smart money says a displaced and disgruntled person of Cuban heritage held up the sign. Anyway, the reaction of a Cuban official at the game was classic, old-school totalitarianism.
A lackey of the Cuban dictator in attendance charged the person holding the sign and had to be restrained by the police and taken to a local police station. The Puerto Rican police said that they lectured this Castro-ite on the ways of free speech, and that this kind of sign waving was not a crime. Furthermore the Puerto Rican police have said that they will not be enforcing a rule that prohibits signs that are political in nature. It’s nice to see that these Cuban thugs have been told to sit down and shut up. In Havana this protester would have been arrested, beaten with rubber hoses, chained to a wall, and starved. In Puerto Rico the police protect him. This is a great example of the great divide that exists between the freedom that we enjoy and the atmosphere of subjugation that Castro and his henchmen have inflicted upon the Cubans. “Down With Fidel,” indeed.
March Madness Versus The Bowl Championship Series. Anybody who doesn’t believe that college football needs a real playoff system needs to pay attention to what occurs during the NCAA hoops tourney. The system in basketball does everything right that the BCS system does wrong. In hoops, every game during the conference tournaments and in the NCAA tournament means something. In the BCS system only the last two games are important. I don’t care how interesting some of the bowl game match ups are, aside from giving us something to watch and for helping the schools involved with their recruiting, none of these bowl games mean a thing.
Article comments
1 - Matthew T. Sussman
I think every country is taking it seriously except us. But I think those on Team USA know what's at stake.