Venezuelan strife disrupts calls to 'Play bol!'

Forget the protests in the streets. Forget the ridiculously long gas lines. Forget the shaky government that could topple and leave total chaos.

Things in Venezuela have taken a serious turn.

They've suspended baseball.

Venezuela has been enduring a general strike for four weeks aimed at unseating unpopular President Hugo Chavez.

The strike has thrown the country into a state of turmoil.

The excitement of the summer (it's summer there when it's winter here) baseball season used to be the one thing on which all Venezuelans could agree.

Even the president himself played first base and pitched before he joined the army and later entered politics -- something he shares in common with Fidel Castro, whose Cuban government has trained many of the Venezuelan athletes in both sports and political philosophy.

Already, many merchants have broken the strike, explaining that they needed to make money during the Christmas season.

And others say the strike is just a way for the rich to keep Chavez distributing the oil money to the poor and they want no part of protests.

Perhaps the shouts of "Play bol!" will be heard across that nation again soon.

That's just how serious baseball is there.