Cuba to give WBC prize money to Katrina victims

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba gave its baseball team a hero's welcome on Tuesday and said the runner-up prize money from the World Baseball Classic would go to victims of Hurricane Katrina in the United States.

Even though they lost 10-6 to Japan in the final of the WBC in San Diego on Monday, the amateur Cuban players were received as champions for getting so far in a tournament organized by professional baseball.

Cheering school children and workers lined streets waving Cuban flags and shouting "Viva Cuba!" as the players rode into Havana in a motorcade of open Soviet-era military jeeps.

President Fidel Castro relished the moment as a triumph over his bitter enemy, the U.S. government, which had tried to prevent Communist Cuba from playing in the 16-nation tourney, citing four-decade-old sanctions against Havana.

The Bush administration reversed that decision under pressure from the baseball world and after Cuba vowed not to take home any prize money. As runner-up, Cuba is entitled to 7 percent of the net revenue of the tournament.

"Whatever we get will be used there for the martyrs of Katrina, be it one million (dollars), two, three or four," Castro said in a speech.

"The money will go there without any doubt and with great satisfaction, because it will heighten the moral of our athletes."

Castro, 79, spoke at a welcoming ceremony for the team at an indoor stadium packed with young athletes where speakers hailed the "champions" for upholding "revolutionary sport."

The players were praised for returning home and not deserting to the Major Leagues, lured by big money.

Baseball, brought to Cuba by American sailors in the 19th century, is a national passion on the Caribbean island.

Professional sport was eliminated when Castro steered the country toward communism after his 1959 revolution.

Despite desertions of top players to the Major Leagues, Cuba has dominated Olympic baseball in recent years. But the World Baseball Classic, organized by the Major Leagues, was a chance to measure up to professional baseball.

The reigning Olympic champions almost didn't make the event after Washington initially denied a Major League Baseball request for a license for Cuba to play in the United States.

But even the U.S. government set aside politics for a moment and praised the homecoming Cuban team.

An electronic billboard that usually flashes criticism of Cuba's one-party state from the front of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana congratulated the players for their sterling effort in the baseball tournament.