Give that man a cigar!

It's Thanksgiving today. Most people will spend part of the day expressing their thankfulness for their family, maybe their home, their children. I'm certainly thankful for those things, but one thing I'm also thankful for are sports.

I have known lots of people who have thought my love of sports to be something of an excuse to whittle away the days perched on a couch in front of a TV. Indeed, I'll certainly watch some basketball and football at some point today–even go to the park and maybe throw the football around a bit. But when a job listing claims to want team-players that are dedicated, focused, success-oriented and goal-driven, where do you learn all of that stuff? In Advanced Business? Micro Economics? I learned it by being involved in sports.

And since we're on the subject of sports and thankfulness, I'm thankful for the news I read today. For the first time since Communists took over, Cuba has lifted their ban on allowing their players to play professionally overseas. As a baseball fan, this is an amazing piece of news. While I might not like Yasiel Puig–for being a Dodger, as a Giants fan–I will admit to his obvious talent level. Players like Yoenis Cespedes with the A's and Aroldis Chapman with the Reds are further proof there are few mediocre Cubans already in the MLB. I have to imagine there are dozens more players just like them stranded in Cuba–until now. And the thought that every team could have a player like Cespedes? Holy smokes.

And that's just baseball. Cuban fighters could breathe some much (much) needed life into the sport of boxing. Boxing has, uh, taken it on the chin a bit with the advancing popularity of MMA. But as there are loads of talented baseball players in Cuba, baseball isn't the country's top sport in terms of talent. Boxing sorely needs an introduction of Cuban talent. Certainly other sports will benefit in the long run as well.

And when hundreds of new Cuban millionaires return to their native country and help enrich their communities, as many other players have, that can only make Cuba stronger in the future. Hopefully all of this will one day strengthen diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Cuba. Just as the collapse of Soviet oppression helped major sports around the world, this new move by Cuba will do the same. But that's not the most important thing. In my lifetime, the Berlin Wall was toppled, this ban from Cuba was lifted and we started diplomatic discussions with Iran of all places. If that's the trend in world politics as my life continues and the only thing we have to fight about is whether or not a batted ball was fair or foul...that's the thing I'm most of all thankful for.