By Joseph A. Manero

Wednesday, March 24, 1999; Page A27

Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig and the Clinton administration have apparently bought into the misguided notion that constructive engagement with Fidel Castro will bring the United States and Cuba closer together. Their collective endorsement of the Baltimore Orioles' trip to Havana this week to play the Cuban national team comes at a time when Castro has intensified efforts at crushing opposition to his four-decades-old communist dictatorship.

As a Cuban American, I originally favored the Orioles' trip. Not because of some pie-in-the-sky "Baseball Diplomacy" with the Castro regime, but because I had hoped the trip would attract hordes of international media, which would report not just on the familiar runs, hits and errors of the baseball game but also on the plight of Cuban dissidents. In fact, I had even considered going to Havana myself to witness the historic event and to visit family members I hadn't seen in 27 years.

The recent trial and conviction of four dissidents there has served as a rude awakening, however, and has caused me to change my mind. Playing the game sends the wrong message to Castro.

President Clinton called for the dissidents' immediate release and said he was "deeply disappointed" at the sentencing of "courageous" human rights activists.

"They did nothing more than assert their right to speak freely about their country's future, call on their government to respect basic human rights and seek a peaceful transition to democracy for the long-suffering Cuban people," the president said.

Clinton should act quickly to cancel the exhibition game in Havana as well as the scheduled return game at Baltimore's Camden Yards on May 3.

The convictions of the four Cubans provide a chilling illustration of communist Cuba's lack of tolerance. In what may seem a surreal episode of the Cold War, the dissidents were sentenced to prison for the crime of sedition. Translation: They attempted to stir up unrest among the Cuban people by doing what you and I are doing here: exercising the basic right of free speech.

They openly questioned the communist government, drafted articles for Cubans to read and disseminate and held news conferences with foreign journalists. They did what we as Americans often take for granted. And while we may raise an eyebrow or two if we call a radio talk show or send an angry letter to a newspaper editor, we never think for a moment that we may be endangering our lives.

Unfortunately, the dissidents -- Marta Beatriz Roque, Vladimiro Roca, Felix Bonne and Rene Gomez Manzano -- did just that. They refused the Cuban government's offer of exile. Instead, they opted to remain in Cuba in prison. Roca, a former military pilot, was sentenced to five years. Manzano, a lawyer, and engineer Bonne got four years each, and economist Roque received a three-year term.

Though the charges, trial and punishment of the four may seem surreal, the events constitute an all-too-real reminder of the lengths to which Castro's regime is willing to go in the name of repression and control. It has become clear that Castro does not seem to care about a possible rebuke by the international community. In fact, he seems to relish rebuke; the convictions could even be interpreted as Castro thumbing his nose at international condemnation.

The dissidents were tried behind closed doors by a five-member communist party tribunal. No foreign journalists were permitted to view the trial, a move questioned by many around the world, including U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright.

As Albright pointed out, one of the basic elements of due process -- the right of the accused to a public trial -- was trampled upon. The trial "violated the very concept of the rule of law," Albright said.

The four had been held for 19 months awaiting trial.

Even Canada, one of Cuba's strongest defenders, is starting to wake up to the fact that Castro is unwilling to change his ways. Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who pleaded the case of the four dissidents during a 1998 visit with Castro, said the sentences would cause Canada to "review the range of bilateral relations" with Cuba.

While Selig has gone to painstaking lengths to avoid any hint of a connection between the Orioles' game in Havana and a possible shift in U.S. policy toward Cuba, he cannot pretend to ignore the political significance of the game.

"If this produces the kind of human results that we're all hoping it does, this could be something really big," Selig said. "I'm very proud of the role we will play in doing something constructive that transcends baseball."

Unfortunately, we've already seen the kinds of "human results" Castro is capable of delivering. And no baseball game will fix those results. Clearly, this is no time to play ball with Fidel Castro.

The writer is a political consultant in Houston.