Recent World Cup Finish Is No Embarrassment for Cuban National Team
10. 15.2009
It seems to be an all-too-common story these days. Cuba’s proud national team has yet again ended its quest a single painful step short of the coveted top prize in the latest international baseball tournament. Once annual winners of almost every international competition in sight, vaunted Cuban squads have now come home second-best in back-to-back World Cup events, as well as in last summer’s Beijing Olympics. Perhaps even more disappointing...
Cuba Embarks on Dramatic Historic World Cup Stretch Run in Nettuno
09.24.2009
My last column dwelt on the drastic shifts of fortune that normally plague—or perhaps better still, enliven—the sport of baseball. That account was written in the aftermath of Cuba’s only loss of the tournament at the hands of Puerto Rico, a game were a single sloppy three-run inning and uncharacteristic pitching meltdown put the ball club in a rather deep second-round hole. It was an unsuspected setback (Cuba had beat the same opponent 10-0 earlier) that not only...
World Cup Baseball is a Rollercoaster Ride with Many Twists and Turns
09. 19.2009
It is not only the evening game-time temperatures that have been surging and ebbing all week long here in Haarlem, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Baseball at almost any level is itself a sport in which a particular team’s fortunes can ebb and flow just as wildly as chaotic Dutch September weather. From big league to little league, any particular day’s results are...
Cuba Debuts Big Bats as Play Opens in Spain and Other European Venues
09.14.2009
The good news so far is that Team Cuba opened a long-anticipated 2009 crusade to recapture its often-held World Cup title with a series of memorable offensive explosions this past week in Barcelona. In the process the 25-time IBAF World Cup winners dramatically underscored their pre-tournament status as ...
More Hits, Runs, and Personal Observations from the Italian Coast
09. 06.2009
Supposedly there are no nine-inning ties in baseball—unless, of course, we are talking about rigidly scheduled international tournament games, highly untenable weather conditions, or those international “friendly” matches which are only glorified exhibition games and thus where victory is only an afterthought. A dose of all these elements (especially the near-freezing wind-blown playing conditions) combined yesterday at Ronchi dei Legionare Field in Friuli to provide just...
World Cup Chase Opens with the Festive Italian Baseball Week
09.04.2009
There is little normal about professional baseball in Italy. The Italian League game is played in small and rather primitive ballparks, most of them set, however, in quaint and remarkably picturesque surroundings. The grandstands are usually limited in scope and often filled with plastic lawn chairs or wooden benches; the fences are...
08. 27.2009
After a grueling month of sixteen all-star exhibition contests staged in major stadiums across the island, the Cuban Baseball Federation has officially announced its 24-man final roster for the upcoming Europe-based IBAF world championships. This newest national team edition promises to be one of the strongest-ever island contingents, boasting veteran sluggers aplenty in Cepeda, Despaigne, Peraza, Gourriel, Enríquez and Céspedes, as well as...
11.18.2007
The Cuban winning skein in international play simply had to come to an end sometime, after all, and last night Team USA finally climbed over the hump to win its first World Cup title in 33 years. The 6-3 American victory also represented the first-ever Team USA crown in an IBAF-sanctioned version of the sport’s most legitimate world series...
11. 06.2007
This past week found me once again in Havana for a series of events that included a brief visit with several national team all-stars (including Frederich Cepeda, Osmani Urrutia, Eduardo Paret, Yosvani Peraza and Vladimir Baños); a viewing of the final tune-up Team Cuba versus Industriales exhibition held under the threatening skies produced by tropical storm Noel (and staged in Havana’s Changa Mederos Stadium, the day before the squad’s October 30 departure to Taipei)...
