Cuba's exclusion from the World Baseball Classic would be tragic, and no one knows it more than WBC ambassador Tommy Lasorda.

On hand for both Cuban revolutions in the 1950s, Lasorda met Cuban ruler Fidel Castro, played in Cuba and later coached the United States to an upset of Cuba at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

Knowing what international competition can mean, Lasorda said the WBC will go on to help players, coaches and fans worldwide build the kind of memories he and his team of then-unknown minor leaguers did in their upset of Cuba in 2000.