The commissioner of the Big leagues American Baseball (MLB in English), Rob Manfred, recognized this Wednesday that the Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB) It is the only entity authorized to form the Island’s national team for the next World Classic.
“International competitions have their rules like the WBC to be endorsed,” Manfred said Tuesday before the Baseball Writers Association of America, according to a a dispatch from the AP agency published on the website of the sports chain ESPN.
“One of those rules is that the Cuban Baseball Federation selects the members of its team,” added the commissioner quoted by the report.
The top manager of professional baseball in the United States also expressed that the MLBone of the organizing entities of the World Classichas no chance of maneuvering so that players and former players who left Cuba and play in the Major Leagues can join their country’s team in the upcoming tournament.
Manfred’s explanations fall with a bucket of cold water on the so-called Association of Professional Cuban Baseball Players (APCP), created in Miami this year and whose purposes included obtaining authorization to represent Cuba in international tournaments, including the Clásico, with a team made up of players with no ties to FCB.
According to its directors, the nascent organization claims the right of baseball players born in Cuba who have decided to continue their professional careers outside the island, to represent the country, and that is denied for political reasons.
At the beginning of last June, the main executives of the APCP met with Manfred himself at the MLB offices in New York to provide him with details of the project. After the meeting, these executives valued it as “very positive”, and pointed out that the commissioner “understood the great business opportunity that is presented with our team of Cuban stars that shine independently and freely in MLB, Minor Leagues and other circuits. professionals on the planet”, according to a note posted on his Facebook profile.
In the same publication, the APCP pointed out that Manfred “committed to exploring the different avenues to expose Cuban baseball talent on the ground.”
Transcending the position now set by the MLB, the Island Players Association, through another note on its social networks, has not been slow to describe the attitude of Manfred and the MLB as “a hoax.”
With the explanations given by its commissioner, the MLB agrees with the vision of the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), which, together with the MLB players’ union, is also in charge of the Classic World.
The Italian Riccardo Fraccari, president of the WBSC, had backed up already to the FCB on this issue, when he assured that “the only entities that can form a national team, use the colours, the uniform and the flag are the full members, they are the national federations”.
