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Cuba, Japan Advance to WBC Title Game
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Lazo's penultimate pitch of the game, to Dominican pinch hitter Alfonso Soriano, was a fastball that lit up the radar gun at 152 kilometers per hour (or 95 mph) for strike two, and he followed that with a 138-kph (86-mph) slider. Fooled by the pitch, Soriano tried unsuccessfully to check his swing.
"They are not professionals," Soriano said, "but they play like professionals. We are professionals, but we are not in very good shape."
Having watched the entire game from the top step of their dugout, Lazo's joyous teammates were already halfway to the mound when the umpires ruled that Soriano, the Washington Nationals' newly acquired slugger, had gone around for strike three. The Cubans gathered near the mound in a giant, teeming huddle, then -- suddenly and oddly -- most of the players were on their backs on the ground, kicking their legs in the air like overturned beetles.
Lacking the domestic star power of the U.S. team, which was eliminated in the second round, the WBC is struggling to remain relevant on these shores, as it went head-to-head Saturday against the NCAA basketball tournament. At first pitch, there were thousands of empty seats, although the official attendance was announced as 41,268.
Of the remaining teams, the Dominicans offered the most and biggest marquee names, but the Cubans were the most compelling story. In their first- and second-round games in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the Cubans were met with political protesters in the stands. And while there has been much talk about the potential for defections, none has occurred.
On Saturday, everything the Cubans did seemed a little odd. Their starting pitcher, Marti, featured an exaggerated pause at the top of his windup, then completely abandoned the windup later in the game. The Cuban manager, Higinio Velez, made three substitutions in the cleanup spot of his lineup -- in one inning.
And as the late innings played out, Cuban players would frequently fill paper cups with water and fling the water toward the field, an apparent good luck gesture that apparently worked.
But after the game, as they headed to their buses, they soaked in the applause from the gathering crowd behind the barricade. They raised their arms as the crowd chanted, "Cu-ba! Cu-ba!" One player filmed the scene with a camcorder.
In other words, the Cuban players could not have seemed more normal.
