They have long-range missiles GFP

Yeah, well they’re about as accurate as a Jason Davis fastball – when they and if they can actually launch them. Don’t worry boyz, the Ruskie stuff works about as well as the Brewer’s bullpen.

Relax GFP and put that saber away – the 10 foot tall, bullet proof Russian no exists.

Quite apart from the unpleasant relations between the US and Venezuela, I don’t think Venezuela represents a top priority market for MLB — they’re already nuts about baseball (US baseball included), but they don’t have the broad base of middle class fans with money in their pockets to represent a profitable opportunity for MLB. Asia is another story — lots of money, big consumer markets, and baseball fans who are only now beginning to get tuned in to the US leagues.

Staying on topic, politics aside, Venezuela is actually a great baseball country. In VZ the two most highly regarded dream jobs for kids are baseball player and classical musician. The number of Venezuelans in MLB is still increasing. Partly from the investment that many teams put into VZ back in the late 90s when they (including the Indians) built training facilities. By 2004 a few teams had already abandoned their VZ, but the remaining organizations were pretty much told to divest by the U.S. President in 2004. The Indians closed shop that year, but the facility remains open at the expense of the Venezuelan government. Baseball is alive and well in Venezuela. Regardless what you think of the politics, the people, the majority being baseball fans, are warm and knowledgeable and should be judged individually.

In Caracas, everybody loves Omar Vizquel. It’s the country folk to the West that like Ozzie Guillen.

Also, the hot dogs are intense. They’re skinny sausages served on a pita-like bun and absolutely buried in cole slaw, mustard, mayo, relish, and crushed potato chips . Hot sauce and cilantro sauce are optional.

VZ is a great baseball trip.

But, staying with the topic of your post—which pretty much approves of cold war era stalemates. I’d prefer more diplomatic relations with adverse countries.

Outreach with sporting events can be the best way two normalize and open communication between two countries that have made little progress elsewhere.

I won’t get into the rest of this, but I’m glad you mention Ugueth Urbina. It seems obvious to me that he’s innocent.