IT IS STRANGE for an obscure branch of the U.S. Treasury Department to unite embargo critics, sports fans, Major League Baseball, Puerto Rico’s amateur baseball federation, the International Baseball Federation, and the International Olympic Committee in a strident public denunciation of America’s Cuba policy. But the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control did the trick in mid-December, when it rejected a license application from baseball officials to sign a contract with Cuba for the inaugural World Baseball Classic, scheduled from March 3 to March 20. Each participant in the tournament, established by MLB and the MLB Players Association, automatically collects a thin slice of the profits; and the Cuban national team had been slated to play its three opening-round games–plus, if necessary, its second-round matches–in Puerto Rico, which is subject to U.S. trade laws. (The semifinals and finals will be held in San Diego.)

“Generally speaking, the Cuba embargo prohibits entering into contracts in which Cuba or Cuban nationals have an interest,” explained Treasury spokeswoman Molly Millerwise. “Activities or contracts that could result in financial flows to the Castro regime would effectively work against the objective of the sanctions and be inconsistent with current U.S. foreign policy.”