On Monday, President Trump and his administration cancelled a player deal negotiated between Major League Baseball and the nation of Cuba. This historic deal made it far easier for Cuban nationals to come and play for the MLB in the United States.
Now, things will likely go back to the horrible situations Cuban players faced before when trying to enter into professional baseball on American soil. Human smugglers and far a drift rafts carried players from the communist nation of Cuba and only sometimes do those players make it to their intended destination and almost always do they have dangers of strong ocean currents or being shaken down by those they paid to smuggle them and even family members into the United States even after the bounty was paid.
The deal was great both for Cuban nationals wishing to move to the next level in professional baseball and for Major League Baseball itself by bringing in multinational talent to the sport. This decision hurts the sport of baseball more than any one individual or country. Restricting one nation from sending its’ best players to the top level of a worldwide sport could even trigger more countries and professional sports leagues to be targeted.
One has to think where could this go next? Could basketball players from China be banned from the NBA? Or maybe hockey players from any number of European countries from the NHL? American professional soccer would implode on itself if foreign players were banned from signing with teams in the United States.