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Outrage in Havana Cubans reeling in wake of Olympic disappointments
HAVANA (CNNSI.com) -- The United States knocked Cuba from its Olympic baseball throne, and the Cubans aren't happy about it. Cubans were seething on Wednesday after hearing the news that the U.S. defeated the defending Olympic champions 4-0, denying them another gold medal. Cuban baseball's "hot corner," the unofficial gathering site of the self-anointed sports experts, was scalding as baseball fans ripped apart their national team for allowing the Americans to topple them from their Olympic throne. "They played like a high school team! Like an elementary school team! Like kids just learning how to play baseball!" bellowed Lazaro Sanchez, 40, his eyes popping out and his right index finger jabbing the air. "They played badly in every way!" Sanchez was among the scores of men at the corner in Old Havana's Parque Central, or Central Park, on Wednesday morning who had been up all night watching the United States' 4-0 win over Cuba, broadcast live here on state television. Many of the Cubans who did not stay up to watch the game complained in the morning that they had been unable to sleep because of all the shouts coming from neighboring apartments. Cuban aficionados of the beloved sport known here as "pelota," or ball, were clearly unprepared for a loss. But an earlier shock came last week when the Netherlands snapped Cuba's 21-game Olympic winning streak. "Fidel [Castro] is going to talk to them afterward," said Rene Estable, 41, a worker for the Ministry of Justice who noted that Cuba's leader, a huge baseball fan, had hoped the team would return home with the gold. Most of the 60-odd people gathered at the so-called hot corner saved their roughest criticism for the team's coaches.
"The baseball players didn't play so bad," insisted Maximo Cala, 40. "It was the directing that that was horrible. They did not make the necessary changes." Whether they blamed the players or their coaches for the loss, everyone in the shouting, gesticulating crowd did seem to agree on one thing: The Americans had played very well. "Tremendous playing. Tremendous pitching!" said Cala. He added that Cubans had also been disappointed that former Olympic high-jump champion Javier Sotomayor last week had to settle for the silver medal in Sydney. Nevertheless, they said they sympathized with Sotomayor, who was banned for a year after testing positive for cocaine at the Pan American Games. The high jumper said the layoff and recent minor injuries hampered his effort. Sotomayor's supporters on the island, who believe he was innocent of drug use and was set up by the communist country's enemies, had said that a gold medal at Sydney would have been the ultimate vindication. So far in Sydney, Cuba has won 14 medals: four gold, eight silver and two bronze. Among the gold medalists was Anier Garcia, who beat out three Americans in the men's 110-meter hurdles. Now Cuba's passionate sports fans are putting all their hopes in the country's boxing team, especially heavyweight Felix Savon, at 201 pounds and Maikro Romeo at 106 pounds. "We think the boxers are going to do well," Estable said. "But the baseball loss really hurts the most because that is really the sport that we Cubans love the most."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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