Proposed World Cup

[Shootmaster_44]

Who do you think will be on the rosters for the World Cup MLB is proposing? The one thing I wonder is whether Cuban defectors will play for Cuba or whether an ex-pats team will be put together.

Here's how Canada should stack up:
LHP Erik Bedard (27 years old)
RHP Ryan Dempster (29 years old)
LHP Phil Devey (29 years old)
RHP Jason Dickson (33 years old)
LHP Jeff Francis (25 years old)
RHP Rich Harden (25 years old)
RHP Shawn Hill (25 years old)
RHP Mike Johnson (31 years old)
RHP Jeff Zimmerman (34 years old)
RHP Eric Gagne (30 years old)
RHP Chris Reitsma (29 years old)

C Pierre-Luc Laforest (28 years old)
C John Suomi (26 years old)

INF Stubby Clapp (33 years old)
INF Danny Klassen (31 years old)
INF Corey Koskie (33 years old)
INF Justin Moreneau (25 years old)
INF Peter Orr (27 years old)
INF Simon Pond (30 years old)

OF Jason Bay (28 years old)
OF Jeff Guiel (32 years old)
OF Adam Stern (26 years old)
OF Larry Walker (40 years old)
OF Jeremy Ware (31 years old)

[Pounder]

MLB will NOT be able to put a World Cup together without the international governing body of baseball...

...otherwise, Cuba won't bite, and there's not much credibility to the venture without Cuba being involved.

So I wonder if 2006 will happen, because Cuba will want assurances of more stringent drug testing than MLB wants to (or can, thanks to MLBPA) implement.

[Shootmaster_44]

That's true, but I'm sure Castro would love to see them beat the top teams in the world. How did they manage with the series against the Orioles? I doubt there was any stricter drug testing involved there. The way I see this is MLB can put the invite out to the Cubans, if they refuse to come then its not like MLB didn't try. In hockey the USSR always came to the Canada Cup, even if there was some extra doping going on. I don't think the IIHF was involved in those tournaments. Either way I hope MLB's World Cup happens, as I really like international baseball. With my Expos disappearing soon, the only Canadian team left would be Team Canada. (Yes, I know the Jays still exist, but as most Canadians know Toronto is really just another city in the US, or at least it wants to be. So they don't count. Besides, didn't Trudeau proclaim the Expos Canada's Team through Parliament? If so, it makes them officially Canada's team.)