Cuba goes for gold once again
Friday, August 22, 2008 3:16 PM PDT
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| Kathy Willens | Associated Press
The USA’s Blaine Neal removes his cap after giving up an eighth inning three-run home run to Cuba’s Ariel Pestano in Cuba’s 10-2 semifinal baseball win at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Friday. |
BEIJING (AP) — The U.S. baseball team will find no gold in Beijing. And Cuba is back in a place it knows so well — playing for another Olympic title.
Alexei Bell hit a three-run homer in the eighth to put the punctuation mark on the Cubans’ 10-2 rout of the United States on Friday night.
He raised his hand to signal No. 1 while rounding the bases, then Ariel Pestano added his own three-run shot three batters later to seal it.
Alfredo Despaigne hit his second homer against the Americans this tournament and Frederich Cepeda also connected.
Anything less than gold will be considered a failure for the Cubans, who have won three of the previous four Olympic tournaments since baseball became a medal sport in 1992.
Cuba (7-1) will play Saturday night against unbeaten South Korea (8-0), and the U.S. (5-3) will face Japan for bronze in the first game of the day. South Korea past Japan 6-2 in Friday’s first semifinal.
After the final out, the Cubans celebrated mildly on the mound. The Cuban team includes Antonio Castro, the team doctor and son of the country’s former president.
Cuba finished runner-up to the U.S. in 2000 at the Sydney Olympics before winning again four years later in Athens. Winning gold in China might mean even more to the island, considering baseball will come off the Olympic program for the 2012 London Games and might not be back.
Wukesong Stadium was nearly full save for a few open seats in the outfield bleachers. Cuba’s fans chanted of ‘‘Let’s go Cuba!’’ in Chinese, standing to clap and wave their country’s flag. They even had their share of supporters from China.
