Evening at the stadium in Cuba

When the International Olympic Committee voted last week to exclude baseball from the 2016 Games, both Cuba and the United States expressed rare agreement that the vote was a foul ball. It wasn't the usual way the Olympics brings nations together, but we'll take it.

Both countries tend to do well in international baseball competitions, but Cuba does better. Up until the last World Baseball Classic in March 2009, Cuba had a streak of 40 consecutive appearances in the finals of international tournaments.

Golf, on the other hand, may be one of the only sports where they've got nothing.

In fact, if you consider Hugo Chavez's recent opinions on the subject, the switch of golf for baseball at the Olympics adds insult to injury. He's got it in for the sport, and calls it -- exercising the Venezuelan equivalent of the nuclear option -- bourgeois.

This flap led to a very humorous quiz on the NY Times blog about Chavez's mentor Fidel's struggle with the good walk spoiled.' (Apparently, Castro and Che Guevara squared off in a match to poke fun at President Eisenhower after his termination of import quotas on Cuban sugar. Castro lost, and it didn't end well for the journalist who covered the event, who was fired.)

Later, the Castro regime converted many of Cuba's golf courses to more acceptable revolutionary purposes. But as the IOC vote shows, golf has its supporters. Even, apparently, among Cuba's tourism czars -- the sport is flourishing, at least at the resorts the Cubans have created.