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The anticlimactic Havana Huelga Tournament (where the only question from beginning to end was which Cuban squad would ultimately triumph) concluded Sunday afternoon with anything but a whimper, peaking rather with something more akin to a loud bang. With an onslaught of five homers (Enríquez 2, Peraza, Martin, Malleta) the Blue team rang up an impressive 8-4 win and in the process battered veteran national team bullpen ace Pedro Luis Lazo, who suffered one of his worst outings in recent memory. Lazo lasted only two-thirds of a frame during his fifth-inning appearance and was greeted by dingers from Martin and Enríquez, plus a ringing Duvergel double. Lazo’s losing performance wiped out a solid four-inning start by southpaw ace Yulieski González, who ran his tournament-best strikeout total to twenty. The Red team also showed some early active bats on its own side of the ledger, with round trippers from Ronnie Mustelier and Eduardo Paret. The slugfest ran the overall Cuban tournament home run total to 21, including four by Enríquez, three for Bell, and two apiece for Peraza, Gourriel and Mustelier. Additional homers during the ten-day event were slugged by Pestano, Despaigne, Duvergel, Arias, Olivera, Martin, Paret and Malleta. The visiting Puerto Rico (5) and Venezuela (1) clubs accounted for only a combined six long balls. The Blue’s 8-4 championship victory was concluded under threatening skies only moments before a heavy thunder shower cancelled planned closing ceremonies in Estadio Latinoamericano.

Alexei Bell about to knock Yulieski Gourriel home from third in Cuba Red action at Nelson Fernandez Stadium.

Team Cuba bats, which had slugged away at questionable visiting pitching for ten days without always providing timely scoring, Sunday exploded for its barrage of entertaining long balls against some of its own best hurlers. In addition to Lazo, González, Yoelkis Cruz and Ismel Jiménez (twice) were also tattooed in a game that at times looked more like batting practice than serious competition. Sunday’s action seemed to demonstrate once again that Lazo (who struggled all season long to finally reach the Cuban League career victory récord) has seemingly lost the edge on his feared fastball and famed forkball and is not the same force he was before the March 2006 World Baseball Classic. One ominous warning signal for the Cuban baseball brain trust is that additional late-inning relief strength will have to be quickly found (perhaps from Alfredo Bicet and Ismel Jiménez) to increase the likelihood of gold medal successes in Beijing only two months down the road.

The Sunday thriller came on the heals of a pair of closer-than-need-be semifinal victories for Cuba Blue and Cuba Red teams that had seemingly fallen into something of an offensive rut during much of the past week. On Saturday morning in Nelson Fernández Stadium the Blues limped to a 5-3 win over Puerto Rico after trailing early and then rallying for three decisive runs in the bottom of the seventh. The fateful deciding rallying included one of baseball’s rarest plays, an infield single by Alfredo Despaigne that drove home both Luis Navas (from third) and Leonis Martin (from second). Aroldis Chapman struggled with control in his unimpressive start and may now be in serious danger of not making the Beijing roster. Alberto Bicet hurled the closing three frames for the victory. The nightcap in Latin American Stadium was equally close, with Cuba Red edging game Venezuela 3-0, largely thanks to a fine 5-inning opening performance by Yadir Pedroso, plus an effective relief outing from Norberto González. Both Saturday matches were marked by unusual circumstances, as the morning affair in San José was rescheduled at the last moment (from a 2 pm to 10 am start) to avoid possible afternoon showers, while the night game in Latino was delayed more than an hour when a highway accident blocked the arrival of a bus carrying half of the Cuban squad.

Individual performers of considerable note during the entertaining week-long round robin included Michel Enríquez, Ariel Pestano, Leonis Martin, Yadir Pedroso and Alexei Bell, for starters. Veterans Pestano (the tournament batting leader) and Enríquez (the home run champ) demonstrated with their heavy bats that they have no intention of relinquishing national team starting slots they have held for most of the past decade. Enríquez is fresh off a one-year disciplinary suspension from league play and has rounded nicely back into top playing form. National team infield newcomers Yadil Mujica (Matanzas) and Yoilan Cerce (Guantánamo)—both with plenty of on-base speed, glue-filled gloves, and hot bats—also signaled bright futures on the international stage that will likely come sometime after the August Olympiad. It seems highly unlikely that Mujica or Cerce will make this year’s squad. Ismel Jiménez pitched well out of the bullpen, with opposition forces hitting only .043 against him in his initial three outings. Jiménez is now likely to figure heavily in this summer’s Cuban middle or late relief plans. Norberto González and Yulieski González—the solid pair of veteran southpaws, dueled all week long for the tournament strikeout lead and are still quite obviously the heart of the balanced Cuban pitching corps.

Pete Bjarkman and National Team manager Antonio Pacheco outside Nelson Fernandez Stadium.

Many Havana-based fans have complained during the past ten days about the presumed ineffectiveness of the Huelga format for preparing this year’s national team. There was much griping here in the capital this week about the fact that late in the tournament the Cuban teams were not running up the expected knockout scores against Venezuelan and Puerto Rican less-than-stellar mound staffs, but only eking out sometimes nail-biting two or three-run victories with desperate late-inning rallies. But two factors have to be taken into account here. One is that Cuban team management viewed this tournament strictly as a training exercise, with both squads undergoing a taxing regimen of heavy physical workouts and strength conditioning during morning sessions before afternoon games. Cuba Blue and Cuba Red were always playing tired and thus somewhat flat. Also, the Cuban teams here, as in the past, seemed to play just hard enough to win (they again never lost except to each other, remember) and the string of situations that allowed some late-inning practice at preserving slim victory margins was the perfect practice scenario for upcoming international matches. Teams learn much more from such games (no matter what the opposition level) than they do from boring 11 or 12 run washouts. From this writer’s perspective the Huelga tournament games were just the proper mechanism to fine-tune what promises to be yet another very potent late-summer edition of Team Cuba.

Statistical Summaries

Huelga Tournament Final Standings

Overall: Cuba Blue 7-1, Cuba Red 6-2, Puerto Rico 3-5, Venezuela 0-8

Semifinals: Cuba Blue 5, Puerto Rico 3; Cuba Red 3, Venezuela 0

Third Place Game: Puerto Rico 7, Venezuela 6

Championship: Cuba Blue 8, Cuba Red 4

Huelga Tournament Individual Batting Leaders (thru Semifinals)

BA: Ariel Pestano (Blue) .529 (19 AB, 9 H)*

Runs: Michel Enríquez (Blue) 8*

Hits: César Crespo (PR) 12

2B: Ariel Pestano (Blue), Alex Malleta (Blue), 4

3B: Yoennis Céspedes (Red), Pedro López (PR), Humberto Espinoza (Ven) 1

HR: Alexei Bell (Red) 3*

SLU: Ariel Pestano (Blue) .941

Steals: Pedro López (PR) 4

RBI: Alfredo Despaigne (Blue) 8

BB: Leonis Martin (Blue), Yulieski Gourriel (Red), Alexei Bell (Red), José Leon (PR) 6

Strikeouts: Carlos Pagan (PR), Manuel Ramirez (Ven), José Aponte (Ven) 9

*Final Leaders after Championship Game (Unofficial): BA: Ariel Pestano .476 (21 AB, 10H), HR: Michel Enríquez 4, Runs: Michel Enríquez (10)

Huelga Tournament Individual Pitching Leaders (thru Semifinals)

W-L Pct.: Yadier Pedroso (Red), Alberto Bicet (Blue) 2-0, 1.000

ERA: Willy Guedez (PR) 0.00 (11.0 inns.)

Games Pitched: Melvin Pizarro (PR) 5

Innings: Luis Arroyo (PR) 15.0

Games Started: Yadir Pedroso (Red) 3

Relief Appearances: Melvin Pizarro (PR) 5

Wins: Yadier Pedroso (Red), Alberto Bicet (Blue) 2

Loses: many with one

Saves: Angel García (PR) 2

Strikeouts: Norberto González (Red) 16

Walks: Jesús Yepez (Ven) 9

Havana, Cuba

June 15, 2008

Peter C. Bjarkman’s analyses of Cuban baseball can also be followed on his website at www.bjarkman.com, on his personal blog at www.bjarkmanlatinobaseball.mlblogs.com, and on the Cuban League site found at www.radiococo.cu (English-language page). His new book entitled Who’s Who in Cuban Baseball, 1962-2007 will be published by McFarland at the end of the coming year.