Play Ball

Cuba will be allowed to play in the World Baseball Classic, after the U.S. Treasury Department issued a license to the Cuban team so it can travel to the United States and Puerto Rico. The Bush administration's stubborn refusal to admit the Cubans put the 16-team international tournament, which is being sponsored by Major League Baseball, in jeopardy. Cuba is a baseball power -- baseball, not soccer, is Cuba's national game -- and in the eyes of the world the absence of the Cuban team would have diminished the tournament, which is in its first year.