Marlins Finances: Another Year, Another $40M

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Forbes recently released its annual Business of Baseball issue for 2009. One year ago I started this blog by looking very closely at the Forbes numbers as they pertained to the Florida Marlins.

Back then I got some attention at two of the most popular MLB blogs: Sabernomics & The Hardball Times [THT]. Then in June, an interview with me was posted in THT. Aside from an initial concern over being labeled a 'fiend' on a web site whose title includes the word 'hard,' I was very appreciative to JC Bradbury from Sabernomics and John Beamer from THT for the attention.

Since then, I have written posts about the following topics, none of whose underlying logic has changed:

• How I used Forbes to develop my profit and loss estimates
• Why Forbes is reliable
• Why the Marlins profitability is treated as an open question
• Deconstructing Marlins denials of profitability
• The breach in MLB's Finances, aka The Omertà Deal
• Forbes 2008 Marlins valuation was 97.4% accurate

For the record despite being familiar with the Forbes numbers, I supported the Ballpark deals with local governments. I thought the Norman Braman lawsuit(s) were a cynical misuse of the court system, attempting to capitalize on the Marlins misleading public statements about their profitability, when he must have known better.

But there is a flip side to fact that the Marlins have been denying their profitability, which is complimentary to the Marlins management. In effect, the Marlins will be very responsible corporate partners with local governments in the building of the Ballpark. Because by the time the Ballpark opens, the Marlins will have saved and likely set aside all of their portion of the Ballpark construction costs. They did so by budgeting and running their franchise since 2006 as though they were not receiving any revenue sharing monies [which differ from Central Fund monies distributed]. In short, the Marlins got the Yankees, Mets and Red Sox to pay for their share of the new Ballpark.

Think about it, once the Marlins survived [since the team performed well] their big gamble in 2006 to field a team with the lowest possible salaries, they could have continued to pull in the same level of profits while making only token efforts to secure a Ballpark deal. That could eventually have forced MLB's hand to allow them to relocate, with a new city and stadium potentially waiting for them.

But that's not what they did, they went out and succeeded where Huizenga and Henry had failed. So while Loria may expect to profit even more with the new Ballpark sometime in the future, the day the Ballpark was approved, he was a much less wealthy man than he had been if it failed. That I believe, like the Marlins profitability since 2006, is a fact.

If Jeffrey Loria were from a different part of New York, say Carlito Brigante's neighborhood, here's what he might have said following the approval of the new Ballpark by local governments:

Your Honor with all due respect past and present, and without further to-do. Let me assure this court that I am through walkin' on the revenue sharing receiver side. That's all I've been tryin' to tell you. I have become known throughout MLB as cheap, but my time in the sterling correctional facilities of Montreal and Broward County has not been in vain. I've been cured!

Born again, like the Watergaters. I know you heard this rap before. Your Honors, I mean it. This is the truth. I changed. I changed and it didn't take no eternity like Huizenga and Henry thought, but only seven years. That's right, sir. Seven not-so lean years. And look at me. Completely rehabilitated, reinvigorated, reassimilated, and finally gonna be relocated.

And I want to thank a lot of people for that. I look over there and I see that man there, Mr. Norman Braman. I want to thank you, sir, for making a wealthy arts dealer a sympathetic figure. I would like to thank Commissioner Selig for not including a salary floor in the new collective bargaining agreement. And finally, I want to thank the Almighty revenue sharing payer teams, without whom no low revenue team could prosper while awaiting a new facility.

Carlito Brigante's speech is copied in full at end of post.

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Carlito's Way - Opening scene

Pacino: Now I ain't sayin' that my way would have been different had my mother been alive when I was a kid, 'cause that's all you hear in the joint. "I didn't have a chance." No. Bullshit. I was already a mean little bastard while my mother was alive, and I know it. But I learned about women from her.

Mazursky: Mr. Brigante, there are cases on the court's docket for this morning. Why am I listening to this?

Penn: Your Honor, Mr. Brigante is understandably excited having been vindicated after five years of incarceration.

Mazursky: There's no vindication here, counselor. Or absolution, or benediction, or anything other than an incredible convergence of circumstances which you've exploited to your client's benefit.

Penn: Your Honor, these circumstances that you speak of include illegal wiretaps and tainted evidence.This is a classic "fruit of the poisoned tree" situation. I think after five years of unjust incarceration it's reasonable to request Mr. Brigante be indulged his right to speak.

Mazursky: Okay, Mr. Brigante, I'm all ears.

Pacino: Your Honor with all due respect past and present, and without further to-do. Let me assure this court that I am through walkin' on the wild side. That's all I've been tryin' to tell you. I have been sick with the social ills known in the ghetto but my time in the sterling correctional facilities of Green Haven and Sing Sing has not been in vain. I've been cured!

Born again, like the Watergaters. I know you heard this rap before. Your Honor, I mean it. This is the truth. I changed. I changed and it didn't take no 30 years like Your Honor thought, but only five. That's right, sir. Five years. And look at me. Completely rehabilitated reinvigorated, reassimilated, and finally gonna be relocated.

And I want to thank a lot of people for that. I look over there and I see that man there, Mr. Norwalk. I want to thank you, sir, for making the tapes in an illegal fashion. I would like to thank the Court of Appeals for reversing you, Your Honor. And I want to thank Almighty God, without whom no case gets tossed.

Mazursky: I can't believe this.

Pacino: I must have forgot. How could I forget my dear, close friend and lawyer David Kleinfeld, who never gave up on me through everything, thick and thin. Why don't you just stand up?

Penn: I'm sorry.

Mazursky: Mr. Brigante!

Pacino: Davey Kleinfeld.

Mazursky: You're not accepting an award. Court of Appeals' decision and the District Attorney's unfortunate investigative techniques now devolve upon me the painful duty of unleashing upon society a reputed assassin and convicted purveyor of narcotics.

Pacino: No. Never convicted on no dope.

Mazursky: The indictment is dismissed. Prisoner is discharged. Call the next case.
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The MLB Roller Coaster

Paying close attention to a major league baseball team would cure any casual fan of any preconceived notions of how things should be. In 2009 alone, the Marlins have had 7-game winning and losing streaks. Sandwiched between two Lindstrom blown saves, their bullpen had a streak of over 24 scoreless innings.

Take Emilio Bonifacio. He has gone from one of the hottest players in baseball to having Marlins fans wondering if he will ever make contact again. Check out Bonifacio's splits as a switch-hitter, they are dramatic. As a left handed batter, he has struck out in 20 of 62 at-bats [as opposed to 2 of 22 at-bats as a right-handed batter] and has less power than from the right side. Those numbers scream out for a platoon role as right-handed batter.

But not so fast [pun intended], he's a lead-off man and has yet to draw a walk from the right side of the plate this year. Yesterday, he gets his first start at 2nd base and turns in a great defensive play to save a run and the lead and also goes 2 for 5 at the plate, the last hit a double off K-Rod from the left side of the plate. Go figure.

Take Matt Lindstrom. After his blown save last Friday, which took his ERA from 1.5 to 10.8, he proceeded to save 2 games within 24 hours in New York. But his ninth inning yesterday was a good example of the unpredictability of MLB.

Yesterday, the Marlins beat the Mets by scoring two runs off of J. J. Putz, the Mets designated 8th inning relief pitcher. If Putz were with the Marlins, he would be their highest paid player--since counting is what I do, 11 Mets would fit that description. Then the Marlins bring in their closer and the line score indicates no runs, no hits, no errors, Lindstrom gets the save, end of story. Not exactly. In my last post, I had a defense of manager Freddi Gonzalez's use of Lindstrom, so no Lindstrom-hater here. But check out his ninth inning:

Score FLA 4 / NYM 3
M Lindstrom relieved L Nunez.
G Sheffield hit for F Rodriguez.
G Sheffield walked.
C Beltran walked, G Sheffield to second.
D Wright struck out looking.
R Church grounded out to first, G Sheffield to third, C Beltran to second.
F Tatis hit by pitch.
O Santos hit for R Castro.
O Santos popped out to shortstop.
0 Runs, 0 Hits, 0 Errors

After watching Putz get burned by walking the first 2 batters, Lindstrom proceeds to do the very same thing. I'm listening to the game at 'work' on MLB.com [getting the Mets broadcast for perspective], and I'm dying with every ball. Veteran radio listeners are always tipped off by the crowd reactions, so I suffer each ball twice since I'm hoping I misinterpreted the crowd reaction.

But it's too late to erase my blog post defense, so like Freddi Gonzalez, I have to [spiritually in my case] hang with Lindstrom--speaking of spiritually, you might root for Lindstrom a little harder if you knew that he did missionary work as a teenager--since I figure another blown save might ruin his career, so I'm really pulling for the dude. He then hits Tatis!

Now I'm worried about manager Freddi Gonzalez's job. Another Lindstrom blown save and it will get ugly. Momentarily, I slip into a tribal warfare mentality. We can't have a Cuban-American manager sacrificed for this wild Swede, we just can't have it! I regain my composure. Karma now all moving in the 'save' direction. Mets broadcasters are not too happy that Manuel's pinch hitter was fetched from the bullpen. I visually imagine them sharpening long knives like an old style barber on a leather strap in case it does not work out. Santos pops out. No runs, no hits, no errors, many frayed nerves. On to Wrigley. Man, I can't believe it's still April.

Article about Lindstrom's missionary work is copied in full at end of post.

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Life experiences help Lindstrom

Sunday, February 22, 2009 | Feedback | Print Entry

When Florida Marlins relief pitcher Matt Lindstrom was young, maybe 12 or 13 years old, he decided he wanted to go on a mission for his church. He made that decision before he developed into a major baseball prospect and before there was a real lure for him to continue to pursue baseball. When he was 17 years old, he could throw 90-94 mph.

But Lindstrom stuck to his plan and went on his two-year mission to Sweden, the homeland of his great-grandfather.

"It was an incredible experience," Lindstrom said in a phone interview. "I came away with stuff I'll always have my whole life."

Lindstrom lived in seven cities and saw the whole country, and he stayed in Stockholm for eight months. He did service work, doing things such as cleaning up yards in homes owned by elderly women. They'd get up early in the morning and work until night in Sweden's rapidly changing climate. When Lindstrom was in the southern part of the country in the summer, daylight would just be fading at midnight.

"It was just crazy, having that much daylight," Lindstrom recalled.

And he remembered the winter day when he stopped work for lunch at 1 p.m. and when he stepped outside again, it was pitch-black.

Lindstrom grew an inch and put on 10 pounds when he was in Sweden, but his development went beyond his height and weight. Had he chosen a different path, he could have been in college or perhaps could've played minor league baseball during that crucial time in his life. Instead, he did something else besides baseball. Lindstrom believes it helped him physically, because he wasn't throwing a baseball every day, as well as emotionally.

"At that age, you are still maturing, still growing into your body," he said. "Pitching too much at that age could be detrimental to your health. I think it helped me to take that time off and mature into my body, I thought.

"But beyond that, I can't imagine being a major leaguer at such a young age," Lindstrom said. "There are temptations that baseball brings with it, and in the two years, I matured spiritually as well."

Lindstrom told his father that if he had signed at 18 years old, he's not sure he would've been as equipped to make the same decisions he made after his two-year mission.

When he returned to the U.S., the velocity of his pitches was down to 86-87 mph, but within five years, his fastball reached 100 mph. Late last season, he emerged as the Marlins' closer. He is well-armed as he prepares for the 2009 season, in velocity and in perspective.
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Dwyane (Go Go) Gadget - New Back

I'm half asleep trying to read an economics book as the TV in the background is still on TNT. My Miami Heat had been crushed earlier and I was bummed. Then Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley reminded me of why I love sports. Abuse. As in making fun of others in a way that you don't need to confess before Mass.

Case in point. Dwyane Wade had worn what appeared to be a trench coat to the post-game press conference. Mistake. Barkley wondered if Wade thought the game was in Alaska. But it turns out Barkley was just prepping his phone commercial partner for his TV partner. Smith responded, 'no Charles, it's his Go Go Gadget jacket.'

I report, you decide.

Like the series, this ain't over.

But in case Smith was right, 'go go gadget, new Michael Beasley heart!' I can't believe Beasley didn't challenge Flip Murray's dunk with 5:30 to go in the game. Very bad indicator about his competitiveness.

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An Idiot's Guide to a Pitching Change

Winston Churchill described a fanatic as follows, "one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject." Regarding Matt Lindstrom's blown save against the Philadelphia Phillies last Friday night, Marlins fans resemble the latter and seem incapable of the former.

While talk radio makes us question T. S. Eliot's assertion about lost causes--that there are no lost causes, since there are no gained causes--we know that complaining fans are at least interested fans, so they should feel free to say whatever they want. However, what they can not do is criticize Florida Marlins manager Freddi Gonzalez's decision to leave Lindstrom in the game before he faced Shane Victorino and pretend to be knowledgeable baseball fans.

First, let's define the role of the closer. He's supposed to close the game. [OK OK, I'll slow down for people with New York backgrounds.] The way it works is that a pitcher either earns or is given [as was Lindstrom] the role of closer and he then proceeds to either perform well enough to keep his job or lose the role, as Kevin Gregg did last year. A consensus has emerged in MLB that relief pitchers benefit from having defined roles. In effect, those roles are a way of ensuring that key pitching decisions are not made by the manager's intuitions. Think of it as a form of mandatory sentencing guidelines for managers handling their bullpens.

A manager's strategy in handling the bullpen is designed to get the closer in the game to end the game. If the closer fails, then it's a loss or extra innings, but none of the options are ever considered superior to having your closer in the game with a chance to complete the game. As such, every opportunity is given to let the closer do his job. Matt Lindstrom was the Marlins organization's, not just Freddi Gonzalez's, closer on April 24th. A recap of the 9th inning from ESPN:

Philadelphia batting - Top of 9th
Matt Lindstrom pitching for Florida
B Carroll in left field.
M Lindstrom relieved L Nunez.
Score PHI 0 / FLA 3
R Howard grounded out to second.
J Werth doubled to deep left center.
R Ibanez walked.
M Stairs hit for P Feliz.
M Stairs singled to right, J Werth scored, R Ibanez to third.
Score PHI 1 / FLA 3
M Cairo ran for M Stairs.
L Marson walked, M Cairo to second.
E Bruntlett hit for C Condrey.
E Bruntlett struck out looking.
J Rollins walked, R Ibanez scored, M Cairo to third, L Marson to second.
Score PHI 2 / FLA 3

As bad as Lindstrom's outing was to this point, he is also one pitch away from getting [clearly not earning] a save. But there was another key factor at play here. In all the pathetic whining I've heard about this blown save, I have heard no one discuss what Lindstrom's track record was against Victorino. If my assumption about the people doing the criticizing--namely that they can be found almost exclusively on the left side of the bell curve--is correct, it probably never occurred to them [future Yankee fans?].

Lindstron had retired Victorino all 3 times he faced him in 2008. Given the following factors, it made sense to let Lindstrom face him:

• Lindstrom's past performance against Victorino
• Lindstron was still in a position to get the save
  
• Limited options left to the manager when closer fails
  
• Closers are typically given every opportunity to complete their job, especially in April
  

S Victorino homered to right, M Cairo, L Marson and J Rollins scored.
Score PHI 6 / FLA 3

Gonzalez lets Lindstrom face Utley. What reasons would Gonzalez have for not making the change at this point? Gonzalez had Renyel Pinto warming up. Pinto is one of two Marlins left-handers in the bullpen. Pinto had the 2nd most appearances of any Marlins relievers last year and is 2nd in appearances this year. It would make sense for Gonzalez to want to avoid using Pinto.

Why have Pinto warm up if he wasn't going to use him? With Utley and Howard coming up, there was a chance that Pinto could have been used in a tie or even a one-run game. The grand-slam basically put the game out of reach and Gonzalez was hoping that Lindstrom could get the final out without using Pinto. As we know, it didn't work out that way, this time.

C Utley homered to right.
Score PHI 7 / FLA 3
R Pinto relieved M Lindstrom.

Pinto ended up facing 3 batters and throwing 13 pitches. He also ended up being used the next day to face one batter. The odds that the same people complaining about leaving Lindstrom in the game for Victorino and Utley will soon be complaining about the overused bullpen are high.

R Howard doubled to deep center.
J Werth walked.
R Ibanez struck out swinging.

Another interesting result of the inning was that it resuscitated the ever reliable Backup Quarterback Syndrome [BQS]. In this incarnation of the disease, any backup who performs well--Leo Nunez had retired the Phillies on 9 pitches in the 8th--has that one performance extrapolated across multiple seasons. Alas, BQS'ers did not even get to enjoy their fantasy for 24 hours, as Nunez failed in the closer's role the following night.

The most uninteresting thing about the inning is how Gonzalez used Lindstrom. This was 21st century managerial philosophy, strictly by the book. Argue if you wish that he throw that book away, but understand that your argument is with practically all of MLB, not Freddi Gonzalez.

Lindstrom's night - 7 runs, including 2 home runs -- is a spectacularly bad outing. But bad outings happen to all closers. If they happen too often, most teams trade for another one, the Marlins call Jacksonville. Check out the outings two good closers had last year:

Jose Valverde - Houston Astros
DATE -- OPP -- RESULT -- IP -- H -- R -- ER -- HR -- BB -- SO
7/21/08 -- PIT -- L /9-3 -- 0.1 -- 5 -- 6 ---- 6 --- 2 ---- 1 --- 0

Heath Bell - San Diego Padres
DATE -- OPP -- RESULT -- IP -- H -- R -- ER -- HR -- BB -- SO
4/22/08 - @HOU - L 11-7 --1.0 -- 4 --4 --- 4 --- 0 ---- 2 ---- 1

T.S. Eliot's logic can be found at end of post.

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“If we take the widest and wisest view of a Cause, there is no such thing as a Lost Cause, because there is no such thing as a Gained Cause. We fight for lost causes because we know that our defeat and dismay may be the preface to our successors’ victory, though that victory itself will be temporary; we fight rather to keep something alive than in the expectation that it will triumph.” —T.S. Eliot
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Dear Straw [Hat] Man: Ni Tu Te Lo Cres

The straw man argument defined:

An informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent's position. To "attack a straw man" is to create the illusion of having refuted a proposition by substituting a superficially similar proposition (the "straw man"), and refuting it, without ever having actually refuted the original position.

A specific example from a generic political debate:

Person A: The war in Iraq is wrong!
Person B: You cannot convince me that liberty is a bad thing.

(B has equated A's opposition to the war as an opposition to liberty which is easier to defeat).

The straw [hat] man fallacy regarding the U.S. economic embargo towards Cuba, would go like this:

Person A: Cuba must moderate its behavior to benefit from direct trade and tourism with the U.S.
Person B: The Castro's are still in power after 50 years, the embargo has failed.

(B has equated A's support of incentives to moderate Cuba's behavior with active efforts to overthrow a foreign government).

Those of us who have supported the embargo as the best available U.S. foreign policy option to oppose the Castro regime, are in the process of being moved to the ideological front lines of revisionism for target practice. In the case of Cuban-Americans with those views, once again our supreme good fortune is on display. As opposed to many in past and present ideological debates, who have suffered real deprivations as a result of their beliefs, in our case, we merely have to deal with seeing the complicated relationship between our adopted country and Cuba mischaracterized by our ideological opponents. Piece of cake.

Speaking of cake. Think of how the cake slicing scene in Godfather II served as a history lesson for those inclined to anti-Americanism in their interpretation of foreign policy events. No amount of real data about GDP's in the region could dissuade those with the Michael Corleone Cliffs Notes from their James Lipton-type worship of left-wing iconography. To attempt to inform those who are willfully ignorant qualifies as masochism, so I propose that we decline that phony debate with a simple phrase; Ni tu te lo cres. Roughly translated, 'Dude, not even you believe what you're saying.'

Over the next year, the limited U.S. economic embargo will effectively be dismantled. Such is the price for losing elections here, and not having them there. More serious debates will focus on whether it is the right time to have changed tactics, from the perspective of U.S. foreign policy. That's a legitimate debate to have and I am open to a good argument there.

But that is not what I am referring to here. The straw hat man fallacy I am referring to is that which attempts to characterize the entirety of the U.S. foreign policy response to a 50-year dictatorship as a mistake or a failure because the Castro's survived. There is a real and important difference between what a country, even a super-power, would like to see happen as opposed to what it will act to ensure happens. The 12 years of sanctions leading up to the Iraq war and the actual Iraq war in 2003 embodies that difference. Cuba, for very good reasons which I agree with, never rose to the level of Iraq in 2003 from a U.S. national security perspective.

The Revisionists are Coming

They won't be hard to spot. For example, be on the lookout for references to never-enacted CIA plots over four decades old--as in 45 years or two generations or half a Chicago Cubs championship cycle--which are trotted out for their Manchurian pity-inducing potential as opposed to having any relevance to the Cuba debate since the mid-1960s. When the straw hat man cometh, his rap will include any or all of the following buzzwords or phrases:

• Failed embargo
• Miami exile community is changing
• The Cuban people have nothing against ...
• Failed U.S. policy
• 10 U.S. presidents have failed
• Exiles dominated U.S. foreign policy
• Failed CIA plots

Think of 'Ni tu te lo cres' as a great productivity tool. It will save us much time, while at the same time treating our ideological foes in the dismissive manner they have richly earned with their straw hat man arguments. With that extra time, I plan to perfect my Castro tombstone doormat, coming to a late-night infomercial near you. [Currently in the design phase, we are stuck on whether the doormat sound effects should be either be a perpetual whimper about the embargo or having John Moschitta read portions of Castro speeches].

An excerpt from a recent Miami Herald editorial on the recent policy changes and meetings.

But, surely, measuring progress in promoting freedom and democracy in the region extends beyond the U.S. relationship with Cuba. How about ensuring fair elections in countries like Nicaragua? Where were the courageous Latin American voices willing to speak out on behalf of beleaguered domestic opponents of Mr. Chávez's bullying tactics? Don't such things count in determining how well democracy is doing in our part of the world, and isn't it up to the region's leaders to make it so?

It is all well and good to push for the reincorporation of Cuba into the inter-American system, but what about Cuba's political prisoners? Who speaks for them? Should freedom of the press be overlooked in the rush to invite Raúl Castro to attend the next summit?

There can be no "equal partnership" in the hemisphere until achieving political freedom -- as opposed to trading with a dictatorship -- becomes the true measure of progress.

Too often out here in bloggerland, we fail to note the good or what we agree with. The Miami Herald's recent editorializing on Cuba, in my opinion, has continued to strike the perfect tone about where the focus should remain, the failures of the Cuban government. Given their overall left of center policy positions, those of us on the right need to appreciate the principled position they have taken on this issue. Great job Miami Herald.

The Miami Herald editorial referenced is copied in full at end of post.

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Miami Herald Editorial - Healing the breach in the Americas

Posted on Tue, Apr. 21, 2009

Forget for a moment that the Summit of the Americas produced no final document for all the assembled leaders of 34 countries to sign. Forget also the antics of Venezuela's Hugo Chávez and the 50-minute, anti-American tirade of Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega -- surely the most embarrassing event of the summit. Consider instead the genuine progress that was achieved in healing the breach between the United States and its neighbors in Latin American and the Caribbean.

Many unmet goals

By former standards, the summit might be judged a failure. The usual measure of success for such gatherings is that they produce agreements in which all parties promise to work toward mutual goals -- like a Free Trade Area of the Americas. But since 1994, when the first summit was held in Miami, hundreds of agreements have been signed, but few goals have been met. The FTAA itself remains an elusive dream.

As for President Chávez and his populist clones, posturing gets you only so far. President Barack Obama rightly refused to be goaded by Mr. Chávez's cynical ploy in presenting him with a book that is largely an anti-American screed or by Mr. Ortega's long-winded petulance. As important, he took the wind out of the sails of some U.S. critics by extending an olive branch in the form of words and actions aimed at opening a new chapter with Cuba.

The result was a lessening of the tensions that had been growing between the United States and its neighbors over these last few years, and that alone represents progress and a successful gathering. Mr. Obama's willingness to take the first step in relation to Cuba was necessary to start a new conversation in the region. This puts the ball squarely in Cuba's court insofar as showing that it, too, is open to change.

But, surely, measuring progress in promoting freedom and democracy in the region extends beyond the U.S. relationship with Cuba. How about ensuring fair elections in countries like Nicaragua? Where were the courageous Latin American voices willing to speak out on behalf of beleaguered domestic opponents of Mr. Chávez's bullying tactics? Don't such things count in determining how well democracy is doing in our part of the world, and isn't it up to the region's leaders to make it so?

Freedom a must

It is all well and good to push for the reincorporation of Cuba into the inter-American system, but what about Cuba's political prisoners? Who speaks for them? Should freedom of the press be overlooked in the rush to invite Raúl Castro to attend the next summit?

There can be no "equal partnership" in the hemisphere until achieving political freedom -- as opposed to trading with a dictatorship -- becomes the true measure of progress.
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'Lost City': Halcyon Havana
Andy Garcia's Take On the Revolution Era

By Stephen Hunter
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 19, 2006; C05

Nobody remembers pre-revolutionary Havana more clearly than those of us who weren't there. We remember the whores, the gangsters, the dirty movie palace, the spies, the strippers and Havana's Shanghai Theater (actual magazine line: "A Cuban Has Cracked the G-String Barrier.") After all, we all saw "Godfather II" or read Graham Greene's "Our Man in Havana."

But Cubans remember it differently. They remember an elegant Spanish city of grand architecture, crashing surf against the sea wall at the Malecon, the palm trees, the broad boulevards, the pulsating music -- and the families, their own and others, that formed a dense interrelationship of love and rivalry and angst and fear and pity.

Those actual memories are at the heart of Andy Garcia's "The Lost City," a tribute to that time and place, an elegy on what was lost, a little payback for a regime that drove them out, and, best of all, a synthesis of the driving Afro-Cuban rhythms of the extraordinary music.

The big news in the movie will be Garcia's portrait of the young, ruthless, movie-star handsome Che Guevara (Jsu Garcia), so beloved by the American (and world) left. They should know; after all, they saw "The Motorcycle Diaries." Andy Garcia -- an emigre who fled with his parents when he was 5 1/2 -- and the late Cuban novelist-screenwriter G. Cabrera Infante have a different take. They see a punk killer who knows how beautiful he is, how cool, how sexy. He's Mick Jagger with a .45 automatic and plenty of notches in the grip.

Good Lord, what will this do to the T-shirt sales?

But that's only a tiny part of the movie, which is really the story of a family. And the truth is, the movie is pretty fair: It also shows the brutality and corruption of the Batista regime in full frontal frankness, and if it laments the direction that history happens to take, it doesn't question the idea that a change was necessary.

Again, though, that's not the movie, which aspires to be more universal. The model is classic and transcends culture. You can see it in such diverse works as "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Legends of the Fall" and, I suppose, "The Three Little Pigs." It tracks the fate of three siblings across a turbulent era and watches each fate as it transpires, leaving, ultimately, a melancholy survivor lamenting what and who have passed.

The film focuses on the Fellove family. Papa (Tomas Milian) is a college professor but a man of means. They live in a hacienda that could easily be confused with paradise, a vast white house with gardens and servants and billowing curtains at the windows. But they know that change will come: It's 1958 and the Batista government is getting more and more repressive, just as the scruffy rebels are getting more and more bold. Batista had lost the middle class and the aristocrats; he holds only the army. Of course, secret policemen hunt the bad boys in the shadows of the city and the game is played as hard as any revolutionary struggle.

Each brother has a different attitude toward what is happening around them. Fico (Andy Garcia) the eldest, is proprietor of El Tropical, a thinly disguised version of the still extant Tropicana. He is, like so many in show biz, apolitical, as the demands of running the club are so intense they leave him little time for the larger picture. (His profession also gives the movie a platform to offer up almost 40 Cuban songs.) At the same time, he is a traditional Spaniard, who believes in the patriarchal system, and nothing makes him madder than when his two younger brothers disrespect the grave, kind idealist who is their father.

Son No. 2 is Luis (Nestor Carbonell), a pacifist like his father but a man who abhors the politics of now. He yearns for a democratic Cuba but comes to conclude that one man stands between that and reality -- Batista. Thus, he joins the March 13, 1958, assault on Batista's palace by an anti-communist revolutionary group calling itself The Directorio (the details aren't from the movie, but from Hugh Thomas's "Cuba or the Pursuit of Freedom"). Castro had been approached by the group but refused to pitch in; a veteran of an earlier shootout at Moncada Barracks, he sat this one out in the mountains, a wise decision as the attempt ended in failure and massacre. (Even an American tourist got shot by Batista's trigger-happy guards!) "The Lost City's" re-creation of this twisted battle is the most dynamic sequence in the film.

Son No. 3, Ricardo (Enrique Murciano), at least knows which way the wind is blowing. Chastened by the results of that engagement, he joins Castro and soon adds beard and fatigues to his look. Meanwhile, Fico takes it on himself to obey his middle brother's wish and take care of his wife, Aurora (beautiful Ines Sastre), and soon the older brother and the widow have more on their minds than politics.

Some of the tropes of "The Lost City" are ineffective. Bill Murray plays an unnamed "writer" who befriends and hangs out with Fico, offering a comic subtext to all the revolutionary gloom and doom. Murray is always funny and when someone puts him in that forgotten '50s outfit of the short-pants suit, he looks particularly hilarious. He says a lot of things, too, but somehow his character, meant to represent the offbeat stylings of G. Cabrera Infante himself, doesn't quite work.

Then there's Dustin Hoffman in the movie briefly as the famous Meyer Lansky. His is a different version of the character played by Lee Strasberg in "Godfather II," the visionary genius fixer ("Hyman Roth" was the nom de guerre), but again the movie's not about the Cuba of Mafia corruption, sleaze, gangsterism and commercial sex that was at the center of "Godfather II" and more than a few novels. Lansky's appearance, and that plotline, doesn't come to much.

What does work is the sense of loss. Infante finds a brilliant device in the love affair between Fico and Aurora, in that Aurora in some way becomes Cuba. She is absorbed by it and the revolution, and though she loves Fico (who doesn't love a revolution that imparts its discipline on his entertainment enterprise), she cannot tear herself away from a dream of a glorious revolutionary future.

As a director, Garcia's best skill is in evoking great work from his cast, particularly Milian, Murciano, Sastre and Carbonell. They are the heart of the film, the doomed, damned Felloves, victims of the classic wrong time, wrong place tragedy. The movie makes one thing achingly real: the fact that it isn't fun to be born in the cross-hairs of history.

The Lost City (143 minutes, at Landmark's E Street and Bethesda Row) is rated R for violence.

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Salute to Miami Senior High: The Wheel Deal

With apologies to the Norman Maclean character in A River Runs Through It, I am now haunted by cogs. But, in the words of a future saint--be not afraid--it is a friendly haunting.

It all began with an entry in Howard Kleinberg's book, The Stingaree Century. Last night, I was reminded that Jonas Hodges had played the cog card--as in, "I'm just a small cog in ..."--on the TV program 24. Then this morning, I watched a fascinating video about ingenuity at Babalu and saw a real cog in action.

The first cog didn't so much jump out at me as it ambled over slowly, not unlike how a 95 year-old Gardnar Mulloy might approach a microphone at a Hall of Fame dinner, and proceeded to pull up a chair in my head.

Mr Kleinberg [Class of 1951] highlighted the following from a 'Did You Know That ...' section of The Stingaree--the Miami High School [MHS] school newspaper--dated January 22, 1926:

• MHS enrollment has doubled in the last year [to almost 2,000]
• That we need a new building [it would come 2 years later]
• Pete Desjardins, current a MHS student, is a world champion diver
• The Stingarees are the current state basketball champs
• MHS is the southernmost large U.S. high school
• That you are a cog in the wheel that makes up MHS

What would my high school predecessors have thought when they read that last item? Who aspires to be a cog in the wheel? Who is even OK with being a cog in the wheel? I am in a position to answer those type of questions, at least for my fellow 'cogs' who also attended the great Miami Senior High School.

If I had stumbled upon that item 50 years later when I was a junior at MHS in 1976, I suspect I would have quickly realized they were probably referring to kids like me--average student, cut from the basketball JV, some club activity and spent 37% of my waking time at MHS doubled over in laughter--shrugged and thought, 'cool.' You see, while no one aspires to be 'just' a cog in the wheel, you are more than OK with it when you love the wheel. And I loved that MHS wheel, then and now.

Saturday night I attended an event intended to recognize some of the *spokes in our wheel. The 'spoke' folks were the Class of 2009 Sports Hall of Fame [HOF] inductees. It was a wonderful evening, marred only briefly when a politician, who did not attend Miami High, actually read an actual proclamation onstage. The inductees and their presenters were:

• Vince Schaefer, son Chuck [Class of 1964] accepted / Bob Kaufman [Class of 1962]
• Pete Silas [Class of 1949] / Lester Johnson [Class of 1948]
• Gene Bennett [Class of 1952] / Ray Moretti [Class of 1953]
• Raul de Quesada [Class of 1968] / Manny Crespo [Class of 1968]
• Douglas Edwards [Class of 1989] / Shakey Rodriguez [Class of 1971]
• Udonis Haslem [Class of 1998] / Frank Martin [Class of 1983]
• Gardnar Mulloy [Class of 1932] / Claude Potash [Classy, but no Class]
  

As I sat and listened to the ceremony, including a particularly moving speech by Raul de Quesada--who touched on the issue of the changing demographics at MHS during his time and the sacrifices made by his, and likely most of the Cuban-American parents of those in the audience--the evening became less about individual athletic achievements and more about the people with whom those achievements took place. While the physical place is important, even our beautiful and historic building is not the main thing. It was the MHS community being celebrated that evening, not the least of which by all the inductees, whose humility and appreciation was a common thread across the many generations onstage. In fact, evidence as to the greatness of our MHS community was not limited to those onstage.

Sitting behind me was inductee Douglas Edwards' extended family. Basketball skills aside--three very accomplished coaches [Kaufman, Rodriguez & Martin] all agreed that Edwards was the most talented high school player they had ever seen--what might be most impressive about him is that family sitting quietly in the audience. Douglas was one of three Edwards [Steve and Allan would follow] who eventually played for MHS. All were talented and successful, but I can semi-gossip and tell you that how people who know them speak of the Edwards family when they are not present, would make them blush if they were. Just quality people.

Sitting in front of me was Helen Grier [Class of 1951], a cog that evening, but a 'spoke' herself, I later learn, a few years back [HOF 2002]. Sitting to my right, the most beautiful cog of the evening--Nora Galego [Class of 1979]--was taken on a fascinating recap of MHS history by Ms Grier, which I was privileged to eavesdrop on. More on Ms Grier from Kleinberg's book:

Helen came back to Miami High in 1983 as an English Teacher. She also was an adviser to the Miami High Times and, in 1992 became head librarian upon the retirement of Patricia Temple. In November 1992, she was stricken with a rare virus that cost her the use of her eyes. Undeterred, Helen went through training at the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and returned to Miami High's library in 1993 as a reference librarian, where she continues in the schools centennial year [2003]. "The kids don't mind using their eyes for me," she told Miami Herald Publisher David Lawrence in 1993. "I find them to be very receptive. They go through the halls helping me."

If I had sat elsewhere, the stories would have changed, but not the message. The message is that there are only two kinds of people in the world: those who were Stingarees and those who wish they had been.

I imagine that Gardnar Mulloy has better things to do with his time. But if he so chose, being a motivational speaker is clearly one of his options. Mr Mulloy gave a funny and seemingly whimsical talk. Given his age, there is a natural tendency to watch him and try and gleam tips about his longevity. I took much from what he left unsaid. A man whose career included being a lawyer, a Navy commander during World War II, and a tennis champion, chose to not look back at those accomplishments, but rather joke about his very early athletic failures, or as he put it, the "failure of coaches to recognize his talents." Like the drop shots he is known for, it was a nice touch to end the evening.

There are only two kinds of people in the world: those who were Stingarees and those who wish they had been. I [Class of 1977] know because more than a few teachers--Coach Kaufman and Mr Dorste come to mind--told me so back then, and I have lived it ever since.

*- If anyone attempts to lecture me on the mechanical inconsistencies of my cog, spoke and wheel analogy, except for the newly inducted HOF/engineer Mr Silas, I will pay MHS cogs who didn't get to graduate [for excellent reasons] to hurt you.

The Miami Herald article about the HOF dinner is copied in full at end of post.


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Big night at Miami High

Posted on Sun, Apr. 19, 2009

BY ALDEN GONZALEZ
Miami Herald Writer

For nine illustrious decades, Miami Senior High has been a dominant fixture in Florida high school basketball.

On Saturday night, members old and new of the vaunted program gathered in one historic auditorium.

That's where Miami Senior finally gave the best basketball program in the state its due by enshrining six members -- whose graduating years ranged from the late 1940s to the late '90s -- as the school's first basketball Hall of Fame class.

Before Saturday night, the school honored only former football, baseball and soccer players.

Inducted Saturday night were: big man C.J. ''Pete'' Silas (class of 1949), former All-State guard Gene Bennett (1952), honorable mention All-American Raul De Quesada (1968), former NBA player and star forward Douglas Edwards, Miami Heat power forward Udonis Haslem and legendary coach Vince Schaefer.

Also inducted with that class was a man whose success spanned several decades: former tennis star Gardnar Mulloy, who will turn 96 in November and won the Wimbledon doubles final in 1957.

''Our committee is a blend of the old and the younger,'' said committee member Fred Darwick, one who pushed for the enshrinement. ``And the enthusiasm to do this was great. I think it's obvious that with the blue and gold, and with the Miami High tradition -- from Mulloy in '32, to Udonis Haslem in '98 -- the feeling is the same: Miami High tradition is the best.''

It's pretty hard to argue with that.

Ever since the Florida High School Athletic Association began the state basketball championship in 1922, nobody has dominated it like the Stingarees. They have claimed 19 state championships -- six more than the runner-up -- have made 52 state tournament appearances and have 153 wins in state tournaments.

The Stingarees' state titles date from 1925 to 2005.

And although presenters, inductees and video tributes honored that legacy on Saturday, pretty much everything that was spoken about Miami Senior seemed to go back to Schaefer.

Schaefer, whose son, Chuck, accepted the honor on behalf of his father, was Miami Senior coach for 37 years -- from 1945 to 1981 -- finishing with 704 victories. During that tenure, his teams won five state championships. He also was an assistant coach on the football team, which won 12 state titles during his time.

''The person responsible for all of this -- whether directly or indirectly -- is Coach Schaefer,'' said Killian's Bob Kaufman, a former assistant at Miami High. ``There's just no getting around it. In fact, we all owe our coaching careers to Coach Schaefer.''

Haslem, who enrolled at Miami High as a junior in '97 and led the school to back-to-back state championships, was a four-year starter at the University of Florida and is now a starter for the Heat.

He couldn't attend the ceremony because he was in Atlanta preparing for Miami's first-round playoff game against the Hawks on Sunday night.

Instead, Haslem's parents accepted the honor on his behalf. Former coach Frank Martin introduced him, and Haslem thanked the six-member committee in a video.

Edwards, a 6-8 forward best known for leading the Stingarees to the 1987 Class 4A state championship as a sophomore, which ended a 31-year drought, was proclaimed by several presenters as the best talent they had ever seen.

That included former coach Marcos ''Shakey'' Rodriguez, who now heads up the basketball program at Krop High.

'Through all of my years coaching, I often get asked, `Who is the best player you've ever coached?' '' Rodriguez said in his speech. ``And I find myself not even giving it a thought.

``It comes out quickly, and abruptly, and without hesitation. The name Doug Edwards pops out of my head.''

That same assurance also might be given when asked which is the best basketball program in Florida.
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Isiah Thomas: The Anti-Cristobal

The hiring of Mario Cristobal as the football coach at FIU was a welcome departure from the safe practice of hiring 'names.' He was a young coach with extensive roots in the area, personal and professional. The perception was that a hungry young coach was being given the opportunity to build a program in his hometown. FIU could legitimately be seen as Cristobal's dream job. That decision has been seen, almost without exception, as a positive one, especially when the team began showing signs of improvement during his second season last year.

FIU's recent coach Sergio Rocco, was also a young local product. In a way, the change in philosophy about who FIU hires is a reaction to his tenure not working out. But Isiah Thomas? Is bling now king at FIU, at least for hoops? Is it all about name recognition? Could the hiring philosophy be any more different between Rocco, Cristobal and now Thomas? I am an alumni and I dislike this coaching hire for the message it sends about what FIU values.

In my view, even if FIU basketball experiences success in the near future under Thomas, that would not change why I dislike the decision to hire Thomas. I dislike the decision because it implicitly endorses the 'bottom line is everything' way of thinking. It's not, but even if it were, FIU should not be its champion. So keep your bling, stuff your reality show, being recognizable is not the same as being admirable and not all change is progress.

Here is what the Thomas hiring states: Getting very young men--who are susceptible to older mentors who likely admire Isiah Thomas and don't care what he has done lately--to sign with your program is everything. Sign the top recruits and the other factors will fade away. Those other factors are:

• Character
• Continuity
• Local connections
• Comparable experience
• Organizational skills
• Concept that actions have consequences

If FIU had announced the hiring of Isiah Thomas on April Fools' Day, it would have taken an appearance by Anucha Browne Sanders at the press conference before anyone stopped nervous-laughing. Given that FIU is supposedly in the final stages of choosing a new University President, one can only hope that the criteria there will differ from the set of criteria which lead to Isiah Thomas. Otherwise, we might also be soon welcoming Katie Couric back to the area.

Bill Simmons article about Isiah Thomas is copied in full at end of post.

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Idiot's Guide to the Isiah Trial

Wednesday, September 26, 2007 - Updated: September 27, 5:18 PM ET

By Bill Simmons - Page 2

My days of chronicling sleazy sports-related trials peaked six years ago, when I won the Pulitzer Prize for my "Idiot's Guide to the Gold Club Trial" column. That one will never be topped. We had a villain named "Ziggy." We had a woman described as the "Michael Jordan of strippers." We had a group of strippers kick-start a champagne-room orgy with the '97 Knicks by screaming, "There are no rules tonight!" We had guest appearances from Dennis Rodman, Madonna, Stephen Baldwin and the King of Sweden. Best of all, we had Patrick Ewing giving thousands of high school seniors their yearbook quote by saying, "The girls danced, started fondling me, I got aroused, they performed oral sex, I hung around a little bit and talked to them, then I left."

Isiah Thomas' video deposition provided plenty of tabloid fodder in New York.
Anucha Browne Sanders' sexual harassment lawsuit against Madison Square Garden and Knicks GM Isiah Thomas lacked the same tremendous upside potential, but that didn't stop me from following the newspaper coverage religiously and taking copious notes, just in case enough stuff happened for another "Idiot's Guide." Well, enough stuff happened. After three semi-surreal weeks, we're headed toward jury deliberations Friday, and I couldn't wait another day to hand in my column. Here's everything you need to know about this goofy, inexplicable, sordid trial that never should have happened. Please note that all the relevant information in this piece is based on reports from the New York Daily News, Newsday, New York Times and wire services:

Q: What happened? Why is there a trial?

A: In January 2006, Browne Sanders was fired by the Knicks from her position as vice president of marketing. Her $10 million lawsuit claims she was unfairly dismissed after hiring a lawyer to pursue a sexual harassment suit against Thomas, who allegedly made unwanted advances and repeatedly addressed her in vulgar tones. Her attorneys set out to prove MSG, which owns the Knicks, allowed these incidents to happen and keep happening because of a "frat-boy mentality" in its offices (as explained in this New York Daily News feature Sunday).

Meanwhile, the Knicks claim Browne Sanders was fired for four reasons: For sneaking around the office trying to get subordinates to back up her claims against Thomas; for repeatedly struggling to handle her marketing budget and comprehend profit/loss statements; for demanding $6 million to stay quiet about her allegations against Thomas; and for making the moronic Steve Francis and Jalen Rose trades and foolishly signing Jared Jeffries and Jerome James.

(Wait, that last part's wrong -- I got my "struggling Knicks employees who can't handle a budget" mixed up. But the other three parts were true.)


Anucha Browne Sanders says she was unfairly dismissed after hiring a lawyer to pursue a sexual harassment suit.
Q: Considering the Knicks have thrown money around like a drunken billionaire at a strip joint over the past seven years, why didn't they pay off Browne Sanders so none of these seedy allegations saw the light of day?

A: That's a great question. I'm glad I asked it. For an accuser in a sports-related sexual harassment trial, Browne Sanders has strong credentials: She's a former college basketball star at Northwestern, a married mother of three children and one of the few notable African-American female executives in professional sports. Even if her allegations were proven to be false, the last thing the Knicks needed was a potentially damaging and embarrassing trial, especially when they could have settled with Browne Sanders for half the money it cost to buy out Rose.

Of course, when James Dolan is involved, all semblance of logic has to be thrown out the window. (If they ever build The Incompetent Legacy Kid Hall of Fame, he'll get in on the first ballot.) Other than stubbornly refusing to settle with Browne Sanders, Dolan's biggest mistake was the way he allegedly reacted with the actual firing: Once MSG's VP for human resources, Rusty McCormack, told Dolan over the telephone that Browne Sanders was impeding his investigation, Dolan flipped out during a helicopter trip and terminated her contract almost immediately -- without getting advice from MSG's legal counsel first. As Jimmy explained in his video deposition, "All decisions at the Garden, I make on my own," and "I specifically did not consult with counsel. I felt that the overall health of the Garden was in jeopardy here, and that would overrule any opinion of counsel."

(Yeah, why would you want to consult with your legal team before firing a high-ranking African-American female executive who's claiming that your high-profile GM sexually harassed her? What a waste of time! By the way, I'm calling Dolan "Jimmy" for the rest of this column on the off-chance he ends up reading it. He just seems like the kind of guy who would get upset when someone calls him "Jimmy" instead of "James.")

Q: Holdonholdonholdon ... there's a Jimmy Dolan video deposition???

James Dolan
James Dolan testified that Anucha Browne Sanders was fired for her actions on the job.
A: You betcha! It's almost as grisly as the fake Meg White sex tape -- we see the Knicks owner wearing his trademark skeevy black sweater, emulating James Lipton's posture and shifting uncomfortably in his seat for 11 minutes. The highlight: When asked how he felt about Isiah's allegedly calling Browne Sanders a "bitch," Dolan responds, "It's not appropriate. It's also not appropriate to murder anyone. I don't know if that's happened here." Now if you'll excuse me, I have an NBA team to ruin!

(Follow-up note: In Dolan's court appearance Tuesday, he reiterated that Browne Sanders was terminated because she tried to prod subordinates into backing her harassment claims; because she had the gall to demand $6 million to drop the charges; and because she kept failing at her job. That last claim led to the highlight of the testimony -- Browne Sanders' lawyer sarcastically asking Dolan if he believed Thomas had done "quite a good job," followed by Dolan's hesitating for several seconds before finally responding, "Yes." You can see the complete exchange on The Perjury Channel tonight at 8.)

Q: So if there's a Dolan video deposition, is there an Isiah video as well?

A: You betcha! (Watch out, there's some bad language in there.) The highlight happened when Isiah denied cursing at Browne Sanders and offered that "a white male calling a black female a bitch is highly offensive," but when asked if he believed it was just as offensive if a black man said the word, he confessed, "not as much." Upon leaving the courtroom after they showed the tape in court, a mortified Thomas told reporters, "Please don't mischaracterize the videotape shown in court today. I don't think it's right for any man to call a woman a 'bitch,'" then repeated those feelings on the stand by saying, "It's very offensive for any man -- black, white, purple." Purple??? The rest of Isiah's testimony went smoother -- he denied Browne Sanders' accusations, said "I've never cursed at Anucha; I've cursed around Anucha" and made a big deal about how his mother taught him how to treat women with respect.

(Thomas had only one rough moment: During a 15-minute break in the late morning, he nearly spent the Knicks' entire free-agent exemption on a 53-year-old bailiff named Norm.)

Q: When MSG's defense team argued Isiah just happens to be one of those touchy-feely guys who hugs and kisses everybody, why didn't they show videotape from the 1988 NBA Finals when Isiah and Magic kissed each other on the cheek before every game?

A: Probably because they didn't want to confuse the jury. It was confusing enough in 1988. That reminds me, Isiah explained a controversial 2005 hug with Browne Sanders like this: "I went to give her a kiss on the cheek and she recoiled in such a way that it made me feel uncomfortable, and I said, 'What? No love today?'" That's when I expected one of the defense lawyers to pull a Brian Fantana and say, "Take it easy, Champ, why don't you stop talking for a while?" and then demand a 30-minute recess.

Q: Speaking of uncomfortable, were there any disturbing Dolan revelations that came out of this trial?

Knicks City Dancers
Sanders testified that Dolan was very interested in every aspect of the Knicks City Dancers' performances.
A: Well, we did learn about his curious fascination with the Knicks City Dancers. According to Browne Sanders' testimony, Dolan "had a special interest in making sure the dancers were perceived well, and we made sure we took a lot of time to plan out what the outfits would look like. ... Mr. Dolan wanted to be involved in that process, so we involved him. ... He had feedback on what they were wearing, feedback on types of numbers that they would perform to."

(Ladies and gentleman, the Jimmy Dolan era! The man doesn't budge for three years while his GM is blowing out the payroll, pulling the trigger on four or five genuinely indefensible trades and antagonizing the entire fan base ... but if there's a debate about whether the Knicks City Dancers should use "Hot For Teacher" or "Pour Some Sugar On Me" for their routine before the second quarter, count him in!)

Q: Did we learn anything else about Dolan's leadership skills?

A: Yeah, one thing: Browne Sanders testified, "Mr. Dolan was easily agitated, and we all knew it. If he had a problem with something, he would let you know it, and he would yell."

I said I wanted their outfits to be as tight as possible! Do those tops look tight to you?!?! DO THEY? DO THEY LOOK TIGHT TO YOU?!?!

Q: What are the strengths of Browne Sanders' case?

A: She has three things going for her: Dolan canned her just a few months after giving her a $76,000 bonus (seems a little fishy); Isiah was clearly a little touchy-feely (although the extent of that touchy-feeliness is unclear); and she's suing the most incompetent franchise in professional basketball.

Q: What are the issues with Browne Sanders' case?

According to testimony, she had so much trouble keeping a budget, the Knicks were thinking about firing her as early as August '05, when MSG vice-chairman Hank Ratner wanted her gone after she couldn't answer many of Dolan's questions during a financial forecast meeting. Two especially damaging revelations surfaced during the trial:

1. MSG Sports CEO Steve Mills testified he'd never heard one Thomas-related complaint from the plaintiff until an e-mail sent Dec. 15, 2005, one month after she had already approached him in tears about being overwhelmed by her position and wanting to leave. According to Mills, Browne Sanders told him "she's lost the confidence of the people she worked with, and she can't do this anymore. I agreed." Mills also testified that he agreed to keep Browne Sanders on the payroll while she searched for another job. A few weeks later, she filed a lawsuit. Hmmmmmm.

2. During Browne Sanders' testimony, when MSG lawyers interrogated her about four years of false income tax returns that she had filed between 2001 and 2004, Browne Sanders couldn't decipher Schedule C on those returns. For God's sake, even Eddy Curry could figure out Schedule C on a tax return! Are you kidding me?

Q: Isiah was already in the running for "Least Popular GM of the Decade." Please tell me he didn't rebuff Browne Sanders' 2004 request to sign renewal-request letters to past season-ticket holders by hissing, "Bitch, I don't give a f--- about these white people!" This didn't happen, right?

A: Well, that's what Browne Sanders testified (and Isiah vehemently denied). In Isiah's defense, I scream "I don't give a f--- about these white people!" at my Page 2 editors every week.

Browne Sanders made several other claims about Isiah, including that he ...

1. Repeatedly called her a "bitch" and "ho" in private conversations nobody else heard.

2. Played H-O-R-S-E with her once, declared he loved her afterward and explained, "It's like the movie 'Love and Basketball.'"

3. Dismissed her efforts to get more players to show up for corporate events by yelling things at her like, "Bitch, I don't give a f--- about the sponsors. I don't give a f--- about ticket sales," and "We're not going to do any more of these f------ community events. I'm here to win f------ basketball games."

4. Found a scar above her eye appealing because he had one as well, even writing in her diary in 2004, "Isiah told me that he was very attracted to me after pointing out a scar above my eye."

(Note: What high-ranking sports executive would ever keep a diary? Are you kidding me? Can you imagine Mitch Kupchak lying in bed this week and writing, "Dear Diary, I think it might be time to trade Lamar Odom ... ?")

Q: What was Browne Sanders' most bizarre accusation during her testimony?

When she testified that Mills allegedly warned her to keep quiet, or else Thomas would start rumors Browne Sanders had been having an extramarital affair with another MSG executive. Browne Sanders said she responded, "Steve, is that a threat? Do I need to find a lawyer?" During his testimony, Mills vehemently denied the incident took place.

(Look, it's hard to say that ANYTHING is too preposterous in this case, but that accusation sounded like something Demi Moore would have made up in "Disclosure." How could someone rise to the position of CEO/president of Madison Square Garden, then stupidly play the "If you keep this up, we'll make up an evil rumor about you" card? If we're to assume the Knicks would be going to such great lengths to save money, wouldn't they also be planting incriminating evidence at Jerome James' house to get him off their salary cap?)

Q: All right, let's get to the good stuff. Did any juicy sexual revelations come out of the trial?

A: Well, we've all heard about the watershed Stephon Marbury testimony at this point, but for the kids reading this column 25 years from now, let's rehash the best parts of a multi-layered story that eventually led to the Daily News headline, "MSG Intern Had Backseat Sex With Marbury."

• In her determination to prove the Knicks had handled sexual incidents callously in the past, Browne Sanders testified about the time in 2005 when Marbury and his cousin Hassan Gonsalves ran into a group of Knicks employees outside a Mount Vernon strip club. Gonsalves allegedly made a filthy come-on to one female intern that began with "you look good in those pants" and ended with a sentence that kinda sounded like something Miggs screamed at Clarice in "Silence of the Lambs." A little bit later, the intern allegedly climbed into Marbury's car for a sexual encounter. According to Browne Sanders, the intern was drunk and felt pressure to, um, service Marbury's needs because he was the star of the team. In his testimony, Marbury (described as "fidgety" by Newsday) never admitted to having sex with the intern, although he did admit to meeting her outside the strip club and said cryptically, "We got together right across the street."

(Note to the young females reading at home: If you're ever outside of a strip club and the cousin of an NBA player makes you feel like you're in a Jodie Foster movie, then the NBA player offers to show you the backseat of the car ... you might not want to climb in the car. It's a good rule of thumb.)

• On Monday, the intern (Kathleen Decker, resembling Sherry Stringfield during her second "ER" run) took the stand and denied ever telling Browne Sanders that she was forced to do anything with Marbury, even saying, "I wasn't drunk, I was in control." She argued the sex was "consensual" and added, "He asked me, am I going to get into the truck, and I got in." Well, then. She also testified to a "very bizarre" meeting near the end of 2005 when Browne Sanders badgered her about the rumored tryst with Marbury, explaining, "I told her what happened because I felt pressured to." So we can agree on this: At some point, Decker felt pressured to do something. By the way, my daughter is 16 years away from being eligible to become a Knicks intern. I will now smash a fire log against my head.

• My favorite wrinkle of Decker's testimony: We learned she had an ongoing fling with Marbury's cousin during the same time frame as the Marbury tryst. (Shades of Lacey Underall juggling Danny Noonan and Ty Webb in 1980!) Now here's where it gets REALLY interesting: Decker testified that she landed a full-time job with the Knicks soon after her tryst with Marbury and received another big promotion six weeks before the Browne Sanders trial began. She also testified that Browne Sanders was a brutally demanding boss who made her feel "so inferior and so unimportant." True or untrue, we're definitely headed toward an X-rated parody of "Devil Wears Prada" crossed with the Knicks scandal, starring Mr. Marcus as Marbury and Ron Jeremy as Jimmy Dolan. It's probably in production as we speak.

Q: Was that the most damaging portion of the trial for Marbury?

A: Actually, no! Marbury testified that he never heard Isiah call Browne Sanders "a black bitch" or a "ho," explaining that's "not his style" (that's good to know). But that wasn't the damaging part. When asked to remember a heated exchange with Browne Sanders after she wouldn't give him free tickets to a home game, Marbury made one thing clear: "I didn't call her a black bitch. I called her a bitch." Don't expect to see that quote in the next NBA Cares commercial.

Q: Wow, Isiah never said anything that awful to Browne Sanders, did he?

A: According to former assistant GM Jeff Nix, a 15-year employee of the team who was recently fired, he witnessed Thomas calling Browne Sanders a "bitch" and "ho" and recalled one 2004 meeting in which Thomas yelled at Browne Sanders, "Don't forget, you f------ bitch, I'm the president of this f------ team." Where was Rick James during all of this? We don't know.

Meanwhile, John Cudmore, MSG's senior VP of finance, testified that Browne Sanders used the same bad language Thomas used, even saying, "She would use the word 'f---' regularly, often." Coincidentally, Knicks fans used the F-word regularly and often during the past four seasons.

Q: Any other stuff we should know about?

A: Here were my five favorite random stories from the trial ...

1. Because Dolan fired Browne Sanders so abruptly, MSG didn't have enough time to get everything down on paper, so McCormack testified in his videotaped deposition that the organization drew up a "here's why we need to fire Anucha" memo after the fact. That same memo suggested Thomas undergo sensitivity training and Mills meet with human resources to discuss what had happened (neither person followed those suggestions). And it came from McCormack's desk with his name on it, even though he testified later that he never wrote it. By the way, MSG is supposed to be a major company.

(Note to anyone holding Cablevision stock: SELL! SELL!)

2. One of the jurors has been repeatedly falling asleep throughout the trial. This immediately qualified him to become a Knicks courtside season-ticket holder.

3. During an open practice for season-ticket holders in 2005, Robert Levy (a season-ticket holder) testified he witnessed Thomas placing his arm around Browne Sanders' shoulders and remarking, "it was distracting working with someone easy on the eyes" as an uncomfortable Browne Sanders pulled away. In Isiah's defense, he pulled the exact same routine with Rick Mahorn in 1989.

4. After Marbury's testimony, he fled away from reporters in a blue Rolls Royce. I don't know why I enjoyed that detail so much, but I do know this: I wouldn't want to touch anything in the backseat.

5. During jury selection, one prospective juror asked the judge, "Can I speak freely? In my opinion, [Isiah] evaluates talent well, but he hasn't done well as the GM of the Knicks." Another told the judge that he "used to be a fan of the Knicks" as Thomas pretended to be disappointed and dropped his head to the table. Looking back, that might have been the signature moment of the trial: Someone was disqualified from the jury because they "used to be a fan of the Knicks." In other words, at least 8 million other New Yorkers would have been disqualified as jurors. And counting.

Q: What's been the most shocking thing about this trial?

A: That Isiah didn't try to knock it off the front pages by making an insane trade that would have turned everyone's attention to the 2007-08 Knicks instead of this lawsuit. Every time I log on to ESPN.com, I expect to learn Isiah traded David Lee, Malik Rose, Dan Dickau's expiring contract, Fred Jones' expiring contract, $3 million and first-round draft picks in 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2024, 2026, 2028 and 2030 to Phoenix for Shawn Marion. Don't rule this out.

Q: So what's your final prediction?

A: It's so tight right now, I almost wish Vegas would give us a gambling line so we knew who was favored. But even if MSG prevails, there's no question that $10 million worth of P.R. damages -- at least -- was done over these past three weeks. This was one of those rare trials in which everyone will end up losing in the end, especially Kathleen Decker's father.

I see only one happy ending here: At the 11th hour, Gus Johnson comes in out of nowhere, brokers the peace between Browne Sanders and Isiah and convinces both sides to settle before there's a verdict. After seeing the man work his magic in Vegas two months ago, I'm convinced he could settle the bad blood here in 45 minutes and maybe even pull off a four-way hug with Browne Sanders, Isiah, Jimmy Dolan and the judge. But that would have made too much sense.

My final prediction: We're headed for a verdict in favor of the defense, which would double as the first big win for the New York Knicks franchise in six years. If only they could celebrate at the Gold Club.

Bill Simmons is a columnist for Page 2 and ESPN The Magazine. His book "Now I Can Die In Peace" is available in paperback.
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The Daily Gospel

The most practical and effective email list a lot of my friends and I are on is the The Daily Gospel [DGO]. As the title suggests, it is a daily reminder of that day's Gospel reading. DGO is produced by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Anyone can subscribe by going to the DGO's home page - click here.

Today's reading is a favorite of those of us who are part of the local Emmaus community:

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 24,13-35.

Now that very day two of them were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. He asked them, "What are you discussing as you walk along?" They stopped, looking downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, "Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?" And he replied to them, "What sort of things?" They said to him, "The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive. Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but him they did not see." And he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures. As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther. But they urged him, "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over." So he went in to stay with them. And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning (within us) while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?" So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the eleven and those with them who were saying, "The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!" Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

See the DGO's commentary on today's reading at end of post.

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Easter Wednesday : Lc 24,13-35
Commentary of the day
Saint Gregory the Great (c.540-604), Pope, Doctor of the Church
Homily 23 on the Gospel (©Cistercian Studies series)

"Their eyes were prevented from recognizing him"

You have heard, dearly beloved, that the Lord appeared to two disciples while they were walking on the road. They were talking about him, even though they did not believe. He did not show them an appearance which they could recognize, but the Lord behaved before the eyes of their bodies in accord with what was going on inwardly before the eyes of their hearts. Within themselves they were both loving and doubting; and the Lord was present to them out. outwardly, but did not show them who he was. He manifested his presence to them as they talked about him, but hid the appearance by which they would recognize him on account of their doubts. He did indeed talk with them, reproving the hardness of their understanding and opening to them the mysteries of holy scripture concerning himself: and yet, because as an object of faith he was still a stranger to their hearts, he made a pretense of going on farther... The perfect Truth did nothing deceitful; he was only manifesting himself to them materially as they were thinking of him.

It had to be shown whether those who did not as yet love him as God were at least able to love him as a stranger. Since those with whom Truth was walking couldn't be alien to charity, they invited him, a stranger, to be their guest. But why do I say they invited him, when it is written that they compelled him? We must surely infer from this example that strangers are not only to be invited to be guests but even forcibly persuaded.

They set the table, brought food, and recognized in the breaking of the bread the God they did not know as he explained the sacred scriptures. They were not enlightened by hearing God's commandments, but by putting them into practice.
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A Miami Herald Editorial Bull's-Eye

No Irish bull. I thought Monday's Miami Herald Editorial regarding the changes to the U.S. Cuba policy struck a perfect tone. An excerpt:

Considering the hoopla that preceded it, President Barack Obama's decision to relax the rules governing travel and cash transfers to Cuba might seem to some like a daring new policy initiative -- but it isn't. Mr. Obama is making a marginal change in U.S. policy to signal that he is open to fundamental revision, but only if the Cuban government reciprocates -- and that has always been the real stumbling block.
...
This is unlikely to happen soon, but we hope Mr. Obama's decision will prompt other leaders in Latin America -- who have been pressing for a change in U.S. policy toward Cuba -- to call for Havana to mend its own ways. That, after all, is where the problem lies and where it must be addressed.

It must never be forgotten that the fundamental problem in U.S.-Cuba relations is the absence of freedom and civil liberties under the Castro regime. Until Cuba has a "normal" government -- one that acts with the express consent of the governed -- no U.S. government is likely to take steps toward "normalizing" relations.

Editorial referenced is copied in full at end of post.

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New Cuba rules send important signal

April 13, 2009

OUR OPINION: U.S. OPEN TO CHANGE, BUT ONLY IF HAVANA WILL RECIPROCATE

Considering the hoopla that preceded it, President Barack Obama's decision to relax the rules governing travel and cash transfers to Cuba might seem to some like a daring new policy initiative -- but it isn't. Mr. Obama is making a marginal change in U.S. policy to signal that he is open to fundamental revision, but only if the Cuban government reciprocates -- and that has always been the real stumbling block.

Policy reverts

Mr. Obama's action is a commendable step, to be sure, but it needs to be put in perspective. In removing travel and gift restrictions for Cuban Americans, the president is reverting to rules that prevailed before a change imposed by President Bill Clinton. That came after the Cuban Air Force, in a cowardly act, shot down two unarmed Brothers to the Rescue planes in 1996, killing four innocent men. President George W. Bush tightened the restrictions after Fidel Castro cracked down on dissidents in 2003, sending scores into prisons where most still remain.

This history and the strong feelings that surround Cuban policy ensure that any change in policy, no matter how slight, carries political and policy risks for any U.S. president. Mr. Obama has made a calculated decision that the move will be largely welcomed by Cuban Americans who want to see the U.S. government get out of the business of regulating how often they see their families.

This fulfills an Obama campaign pledge, and it may give Cubans living under the yoke of the Castro brothers more freedom to act independently, but it hardly amounts to a significant change as far as most Americans are concerned. They are still banned from visiting Cuba; and the trade embargo is still in place.

For any further change to occur, the Cuban government would have to make reciprocal gestures. Such as putting an end to the usurious fees and other obstacles it imposes on Cubans who want to leave. Such as freeing more political prisoners. Such as making the Internet more accessible to average Cubans. Such as ending the ''tourism apartheid'' that keeps most Cubans from having contact with tourists.

It's up to Havana

This is unlikely to happen soon, but we hope Mr. Obama's decision will prompt other leaders in Latin America -- who have been pressing for a change in U.S. policy toward Cuba -- to call for Havana to mend its own ways. That, after all, is where the problem lies and where it must be addressed.

It must never be forgotten that the fundamental problem in U.S.-Cuba relations is the absence of freedom and civil liberties under the Castro regime. Until Cuba has a "normal" government -- one that acts with the express consent of the governed -- no U.S. government is likely to take steps toward "normalizing" relations.
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Carl Hiaasen & The LSD-PL Syndrome

Carl Hiaasen is a great novelist. So sayeth Tom Wolfe, which is good enough for me. Hiaasen is also a long-time South Florida resident who has left of center political views and airs those views as a regular columnist for the Miami Herald. Among his left of center political views has been to oppose the U. S. limited economic embargo towards Cuba. So right away we know that we are dealing with someone who, from a policy perspective, has been butting heads with pro-embargo Cuban Americans for a long time.

My views on the the CANF's recent policy proposal are that, merits aside, it is always a smart political move to get out in front of change. I would make a case that this position need not be seen as a repudiation of the thinking which helped define previous policy positions. But for people who have disagreed with our position, it's payback time. That's what most interested me about Hiaasen's column. He tried to be Michael ["it's not personal ... strictly business"], but his response was pure Sonny [after some college and much counseling].

Let's take a step back, we are almost too close to appreciate what is being debated. Hiaasen's column is about what the proper U.S. foreign policy disposition should be towards the Cuban government in 2009. A 50-year dictatorship which has caused the U.S. periodic immigration problems and attempted to destabilize the region. He used the following words, presented in order, with a negative connotation.

1. fire-breathing opponent - CANF, before their enlightenment
2. failed strategy - CANF's previous support of embargo
3. hard-line - people for embargo
4. utterly failed - results of U.S. embargo position
5. bombastic leader spinning in his grave - Jorge Mas Canosa, founder and former leader of the CANF
6. n/a - no actual words to quote here, but I am awarding bonus animus points for ripping a man who died of cancer over a decade ago in a current policy dispute
7. treasonous - Hiaasen is predicting the language used to oppose the change in policy on AM radio by pro-embargo Cuban-Americans
8. exile radio hosts - in any other market, they would just be local radio hosts
9. decades of frustration and futility - effects of U.S. embargo position on Cuban-Americans
10. huffing macho, as always - Bush administration
11. tough rules - rules which limited remittances and travel
12. cold-hearted - pro embargo position
13. long-running botch job - results of U.S. embargo position
14. Libya - direct role in blowing up plane
15. vocal exile lobby - pro-embargo Cuban-Americans who vote
16. fruitless course - pro embargo position
17. chronic economic mess - Cuban economy

So there you have it, in an 811 word column, Mr Hiaasen makes 17 negative references, one against the Cuban economy, one against Libya, and the rest against, well ... us, pro-embargo Cuban-Americans.

Here's my take on the above language, it's over the top, relative to a column about a former policy opponent which has amended their position. Someone is trying too hard when they resort to the language I've highlighted above. Typically, the better your argument, the less you resort to hyperbole--i.e. see any George Will column. When the person trying too hard is also a great novelist, that's when you know the issue is not just business, it's personal.

Given that we are now in the Easter season, I must make the most generous assumption possible in guessing at Mr Hiaasen's motivations. Like Sally Fields, I can only hope that Carl really, really likes us--if only for all the material we provide--so I exclude personal animus towards us long-standing pro-embargo Cuban-Americans. No, I blame the 'Long Suffering Dinner Party Leftists Syndrome' [LSD-PLS].

I can't help but think of Mr Hiaasen at all the 'right' dinner parties of the literary world or literary-world wannabees. I mean can't you see and hear it too? Glasses, dishes and the silverware serving as a constant muted cymbals backdrop, cross-chatter with periodic laughter among the truly beautiful people, and then comes the inevitable question; "Carl, what's it like down there with those [fill in the blanks]?" If you went to Vegas right now and wagered $1 that he typically answers that we are, on balance, the embodiment of the American dream as can be experienced by immigrants, you may have just won $10 million dollars!!!

See, Mr Hiaasen is their voice in this fight, made all the more heroic because of his Jonas-like location. Although the belly of a typical pro-embargo, middle-aged Cuban-American takes a back-seat to no whale, this crowd hungers for any leftist political victory, albeit one of a watered-down, too-little too-late variety.

As usual though, I think they and Mr Hiaasen have missed out on the bigger picture. You see the conversation on the other side of the table was about what a genius Bernie Madoff was, but the Hiaasen-wing of the dinner parties were in full-spittle fury at us at the time and thereby missed out on the hot financial tips.

Carl, like Footprints in the Sand, we were there for you and you didn't even know it.

Column referenced is copied in full at end of post.

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CANF makes sober proposal about U.S. policy on Cuba

Posted on Sat, Apr. 11, 2009

By CARL HIAASEN

In an historic turnabout, the most prominent Cuban exile organization in the country now wants the Obama White House to expand and enhance relations with the Castro regime.

The Cuban American National Foundation, once a fire-breathing opponent of dialogue with Cuba, has produced a comprehensive 14-page proposal for a different -- and long overdue -- approach.

Published last week, the white paper is titled ``A New Course for U.S.-Cuba Policy: Advancing

People-Driven Change.'' It urges the Obama administration to discard the failed strategy of ''containment'' in favor of a ``people-to-people'' initiative that focuses on improving the lives of Cuban citizens.

The paper is a frank acknowledgment that the old hard-line policies have utterly failed to destabilize Cuba's communist leadership, or bring any meaningful reforms to the island.

As foundation president, Francisco J. Hernández, a Bay of Pigs veteran, explained: ``For 50 years we have been trying to change the Cuban government, the Cuban regime. At the present time, what we have to do is change the emphasis to the Cuban people -- because they are going to be the ones who change things in Cuba.''

For the first time, CANF is advocating direct diplomatic engagement between the United States and Cuba. Jorge Mas Canosa, the bombastic leader of the foundation in its early years, must be spinning in his grave.

The idea of communicating with Cuba will be denounced as treasonous by some exile radio hosts, but their time is fading. Polls show that a rising percentage of Cuban Americans are ready for a change, which isn't surprising after decades of frustration and futility.

For many, the tipping point came in 2004 when the Bush administration -- huffing macho, as always -- imposed tough rules limiting how often exiles could visit relatives on the island, and how much cash they could send to family members.

The cold-hearted plan accomplished nothing except punishing the Cuban people. The Castro brothers suffered not one bit. That fairly sums up the story of the long-running botch job that passes for America's Cuban policy.

We have diplomatic relations with many countries whose human-rights records are as bad, or worse. We eagerly converse (and heavily trade) with nations that lock up dissidents and journalists, or have no serious democratic aspirations.

We talk with China, Vietnam, Russia, Saudi Arabia -- even Libya, a regime that had a direct role in blowing up a Pan Am jet full of innocent people.

It's mainly because of South Florida's vocal exile lobby that the United States has persisted on its fruitless course of trying to isolate Cuba. Ironically, the trade embargo turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to Fidel Castro, presenting him with a ready scapegoat for the country's chronic economic mess.

Although the CANF white paper doesn't call for an end to the embargo, the foundation does support a plan for allowing Cuban Americans and others to send cash, building materials and farm equipment to the island. It also favors an executive order allowing direct aid to pro-democracy groups in Cuba, which have struggled for outside funds under rules enacted during the Clinton administration.

As a top priority, CANF strongly supports President Obama's promise to remove the punitive restrictions on travel and remittances, which the White House has said will happen probably this week.

Obama made this one of his campaign pledges, rightly calling it a humanitarian issue. Cuban Americans should be able to visit family members in Cuba as often as possible and send them as much money as they wish, as other immigrants and exiles are allowed to do.

The dramatic about-face by the Cuban American Foundation could bolster current efforts in Congress to broaden contact with Cuba. Both the House and the Senate are considering bipartisan legislation that would basically permit all Americans to travel there.

It's likely that the Cuban-American members of South Florida's congressional delegation will stick to the shrill hard line, but the political tide is turning. Many U.S. companies have been pushing for years to get the trade barriers lifted, and a receding domestic market makes Cuba look even more appealing.

Capitalism works

With Fidel frail and fading, and Raúl seeking to make his own mark, there's an opportunity for the United States to finally start making a positive difference in the country. The best way is to establish a presence, beginning with tourists and then trade.

Nothing promotes capitalism as effectively as saturating a place with products, services and entertainment supplied by a capitalist system. China is still not a democracy, but its people today have more freedom -- and a bigger appetite for freedom -- than ever before.

What happened in Beijing could happen just as quickly in Havana, if the United States ever unleashed its potent weapons of mass consumption: Mountain Dew, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Levi's jeans . . .

Raúl wouldn't know what hit him.
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