Time erodes even the most adamantine of rivalries. Athens vs. Sparta. Leno vs. Letterman. USA vs. Cuba in baseball.
What was once the most hot-blooded, geopolitical-infused hardball rivalry on the planet devolved into a tepid mismatch Sunday night. In what otherwise has been a thrilling World Baseball Classic, the expected tension and heat of an international semifinal game withered into a varsity-vs.-JV scrimmage.
In the Little Havana section of Miami, Cuba played USA on U.S. soil for the first time since the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, around the time Arnold Schwarzenegger was starring as a U.S. marshal in Eraser. It was a long time ago. Action heroes and the rivalry have not aged well.
