The US don't make the Semi Finals of the World Baseball Classic (despite playing the entire tournament with a home ground advantage) and the Cubans make the final, knocking off the Peurto Ricans and the Dominicans in must win games in the process. Yet the Americans still describe the Cubans as an "anomaly" and their success "surprising".
Well, it would be surprising when you can't see past your nose.
The ever insular nature of the Americans will no doubt suggest that changes need to be made to the tournament format, and continue to have it that only Major League baseballers are the standard through which all others are measured.
Well get this fellas - your side redolent with major league players didn't make the semi finals. The Cubans, on the smell of an oily rag have gone a full two rounds further. Any one player on the US team earns more than the entire Cuban side combined. Of course the Cubans too are missing all their players who have defected as well but I doubt this will be listed for consideration when the US press analyse the wash-up of this tournament.
My suspicion is that their focus will quickly shift to the "main game" of Major League Baseball as they work their way through the year to play in the increasingly befuddlingly named "World Series".
As I write the Cubans have just hit a 3 run home run in the 8th to bring it back to 6-5.
Surprising and anomalous indeed.