Cuban Baseball

Yesterday Cuba lost to Japan in the World Baseball Classic finals. First of all I thought it was pretty funny/ironic and exciting that Cuba made it to the finals considering the U.S. government's opposition to allowing them to play, obviously they brought good competition to the tournament. I also found it very interesting that the commentators would continue to remind viewers that no Cuban players on the team were played in the MLB.

First of all this seems kind of an obvious thing, but I also wanted to know why.
Here is a website on Cuban baseball which includes a list of all Cuban defectors that play baseball professionally in the United States. The website also states that Cuba no longer has professional sports (including baseball) since 1961 (obviously that would be against the socialism of the state) therefore the Cuban league which many of the commentators talked about is actually an amateur league. These leagues and the sports clubs are used to train athletes to participate in world competitions.

http://www.cubanball.com/redball.html

I think the controversy that occured because of Cuba's participation in the WBC shows how there is a divide between the U.S. government's sanctions on Cuba and the U.S. business and societal views on those very same sanctions.