|
 |   |
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
Cuba outscores US in shameful display
= (PICTURES) = SYDNEY, Sept 23 (AFP) - United States and Cuban baseball players nearly traded punches here Saturday during an ugly Olympic baseball showdown marred by a bench-clearing confrontation. Two-time defending Olympic champion Cuba defeated the previously unbeaten Americans 6-1 in a preliminary round match. Cuba, Japan and the US team have already sealed berths in Tuesday's medal semi-finals. Antonio Pacheco and Oscar Macias each hit run-scoring singles and both scored on a double to the leftfield wall by Miguel Caldes to give Cuba a 4-0 lead in the first inning. Sportsmanship was tossed aside soon after. Benches emptied in the fourth inning after Cuban pitcher Jose Ibar, who had shown mastery speed and control by not allowing a US hit and striking out seven batters, hit US slugger Ernie Young on the back of his shoulder. "I'm upset because I know he hit me on purpose," Young said. "Their guy had pinpoint control and I get to be the beneficiary of a 94-mph fastball in the shoulder blade. You tell me how he can strike out eight guys and I get up there and he hits me." Ibar denied he was deliberately aiming at the leading US hitter. "There were no intentions with that pitch. It was part of the game," Ibar said. "There was no intention to hit him. It escaped my control. It was badly interpreted. That's what happened." Young retaliated by shoving Cuban catcher Ariel Pestano, who rose to challenge Young but was restrained by umpire Carlos Rey of Puerto Rico. "The catcher crowded me a little bit," Young said. "He was in my way so I just politely nudged him out of the way." That proved too much for the already intense emotions of a Cuban team in a must-win situation and a US squad being humiliated. Players from both teams raced onto the field, meeting on the first base line, shaping for a brawl. All four umpires, plus the managers and assistant coaches ran between players to keep the peace. Cooler heads prevailed. But the trouble had just begun. "We know they are going to try and intimidate us. That's exactly what happened in that situation," US starting pitcher Rick Krivda said. "They hit our biggest guy. Unfortunately we didn't have any way to do anything about it." US manager Tommy Lasorda said he thought the pitch was intentional. "It hit behind him. That to me is indicative he was trying to hit him. (Young) was the one swinging the bat good. That might have provoked him." Retaliation came in the bottom of the fourth inning when US first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz curled up on the ground as Cuba's Miguel Caldes was running to first base. The Cuban had no choice but to go sprawling over the top of Mientkiewicz, landing hard and awkwardly. The US fielder said he feared Caldes, who later scored to put Cuba 5-0 ahead, was out to deliberately injure him. "We're not going to back down," Mientkiewicz said. "All of a sudden their guy loses control and hits Ernie in the back? They do this to everybody. We're not going to take it. We will do what we have to do to protect ourselves. "I'm not going to let him take my legs out. I've played them too many times not to know. I'm not going to let my knees hang out there. I look at that every time and he is well into the grass. I'm not going to let him screw me up and end my career. All our actions are retaliations and we're the bad guys?" In the seventh inning, Cuba's Yasser Gomez hurled his bat after striking out and it slammed into a wall near the edge of the US dugout, nearly hitting two batboys who had nothing to do with the feud being played out before them. In the eighth inning, Pestano doubled and Cuba's Yobal Duenas raced home as US catcher Pat Borders was trying to catch the ball and block home plate. Duenas slid his spikes into the back of Borders' right leg, causing the 1992 World Series Most Valuable Player to writhe in pain as he rolled away, dropping the ball and allowing Duenas to score and give Cuba its final run. "They play dirty. That's the way they are," Mientkiewicz said. "When a guy takes a catcher out and he is running on the grass, that's horsesh--. If they want to play dirty, let them play dirty. I'm going to defend myself. "We've seen their best. They haven't seen ours. We'll see them again for the gold medal if they can make it." Cuban manager Servio Borges insisted the play was not deliberate. "If the US catcher had been more prepared, he would have injured our runner," Borges said. "It was a strong play, not a dirty play. On our part, there is no antagonism. It's a sport. We go out to play and give our best to the game." Adding to the tensions has been the fact that US manager Tommy Lasorda has emphasized patriotism and playing for national pride to his players since they gathered as a team three weeks ago. The clash between politcal rivals goes deeper than anti-Communism rhetoric and Cold War disputes, into the heart of national pride through a game adored by the people of both nations. Over the past decade, 54 Cuban baseball players have defected to the United States, many for multi-million-dollar major league contracts, including World Series Most Valuable Players and half-brothers Livan and Orlando Hernandez.
|
