Commie Ball

An excellent article by Michael Lewis on baseball in Cuba. Per the successful Lewis formula for storytelling - Lewis tells the tale by focusing on two people. In Moneyball it was Bill Beane and Bill James. In this article - it is Gus Dominguez and Kit Krieger.

Gus Dominguez is the accidental agent who gets arrested for smuggling Cuban baseball players into the US. Kit Krieger is the retired Canadian teacher who has become obsessed with the past and present of Cuban baseball. The past and present of Cuban legendary player Victor Mesa helps to tie everything together.

I went into the story hating communism and Fidel Castro. The story changed none of that but it added Seattle shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt to the list of people I'll never cheer for (if Betancourt gets beaned the next five time he steps into the batters box - that would be just fine with me).

If Gus Dominguez loses his appeal - I hope President Bush pardons him before leaving office.