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The game of his life Sheets shuts down Cuban dynasty, leads U.S. to gold
SYDNEY, Australia -- Ben Sheets didn't mean to offend, but the new star of U.S. baseball admitted he didn't really understand whom he had beaten. Oh, he knew the Cubans were "this great team we heard about," but at age 22, Sheets, a righty starter with the Milwaukee Brewers' Class AAA affiliate in Indianapolis, didn't feel the aura, the mystique of the guys in red. Ben, what did you know about these guys? Did you fear them? What was your biggest concern? "Well, I, um, didn't know anything about their guys. I just left the game plan in the hands of the coaches. I never really paid attention to the Cubans." There was no dismissive strut to Sheets' declaration, only an apology. He should have been awestruck rather than the awesome pitcher he was in the U.S. team's 4-0 victory in the gold-medal game Wednesday night. That win may have signaled the end of one of the great dynasties in Olympic sports.
The old era was tremendous. During the two Olympics in which baseball was an official medal sport, Cuba won all 18 of its games, outscoring its foes 213-75. Cuba has participated in 16 world cup tournaments, the sport's most prestigious international event short of the Olympics, since a third-place finish in 1951, and has won every one of them. That's four decades of dominance. Want to know the silver medalists in those tournaments? The Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Mexico, U.S., Colombia, Puerto Rico, South Korea, Taiwan and Nicaragua. It wasn't just one team falling short year after year. Japan has also knocked on the door. Canada is getting better. European teams are is slowly getting better. The Dutch team upset Cuba 4-2 in a preliminary-round game in Sydney. But nobody could beat the Cubans in the final of a major international tournament. Nobody. When asked if he could recall the last time his team of sluggers was shut out in a major international game, Borges paused, rolled his eyes, shook his head, cleared his throat, shrugged his shoulders, lifted his cap, scratched his forehead and gave up. "Sorry for my memory," he said. "You know I have a very good memory, but I don't remember that. It may well have happened. Who can say?" The core of the Cuban team will need replenishing in time for the Athens Games. Third baseman Omar Linares, who homered three times in the gold-medal game against Japan in '96, will turn 33 next month. Speedy shortstop German Mesa is also 33. DH Antonio Pacheco is 36. Slugging first baseman Orestes Kindelan will turn 36 in November. Lasorda is used to flying out of dugouts, bearhugging victorious pitchers, but never quite with tears in his eyes. There was always a certain affectation in Lasorda's flaunting of Dodger blue. This was different. "This is bigger than the World Series," Lasorda said after the game. "I've managed for 20 years and four World Series, but this is the greatest moment of my life. . . Tonight the first guy we faced threw 93 miles an hour. The second threw 97 miles an hour. The third guy threw a hundred miles an hour. And these guys beat `em." Upon hearing this, U.S. catcher Pat Borders, himself a former World Series MVP in his days with the Toronto Blue Jays, looked over at his manager and said: "I'm ready to go out and play again." But Lasorda wasn't done. "They scored four in the first when they beat us the last time," he said, "so we knew they had an outstanding team. These guys pitching for the Cubans can go in the majors and win right now. We have a bunch of babies on our team." Lasorda then looked at Borders, 37, and Ernie Young, 31, and noted the two exceptions. Even so, Young, a former outfielder with the Oakland Athletics who is U.S. team's cleanup hitter, sounded like a starry-eyed rookie. "If I never play another game in my life," he said, "I'll always have this moment." Sports Illustrated writer-reporter Brian Cazeneuve is in Sydney covering the
Games for the magazine and CNNSI.com. Check back daily to read Cazeneuve's
behind-the-scenes reports from Down
Under.
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