Cuban team prepares for Orioles

With thewrangling over visas and flight delays behind them, Cuba’s national baseball team is ready to play ball.

The Cuban team arrived in Baltimore Sunday night after visa delays caused them to missed a scheduledworkout and reception at Camden Yards. At one point during the weekend, the Cuban government threatened to cancel the trip.

But Orioles owner Peter Angelos, Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmokeand baseball commissioner Bud Selig greeted the team at Baltimore-Washington International Airport where they will play the Orioles tonight in an historic double-play combining sports and diplomacy on the diamond.

Asked on his way to the meeting who would win the game, Angelos said, “Well, we’ll see tomorrow.”

Negotiations about every aspect of the game were tense. FelixWilson, deputy chief of the Cuban Interest Section, which serves asan unofficial embassy in Washington, was upset that Angelos metwith the players while local Cuban officials were kept away from the group until after the team cleared customs.

“Can you imagine we cannot meet the Cuban delegation?” he said. “This is unacceptable.”

Besides the excitement about fielding the first game between Cubans and a major league team in the United States, the event also raised the prospect of defections.

Agent Joe Cubas, who signed pitcher Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez to a contract with the New York Yankees after he defected, is in Baltimore for the game.

Agent Gus Dominguez, who represents players Rene Arocha and Ariel Prieto, said he will also be at tonight’s game, but refused to say whether he has been in contact with any of the Cuban players.

“It’s a very personal decision and obviously they have to makethose decisions themselves. We can’t ask them, we can’t pressure, but they know we are here to help,” Dominguez said.

The Cuban team is expected to be stronger than the squad that lostto the Orioles 3-2 in 11 innings in Havana on March 28. That teamwas missing some of Cuba’s best players, who were participating in the island’s national championships.

Among those making the trip who did not play in the first game are sluggers Orestes Kindelan, Antonio Pacheco and Gabriel Pierre.

The lineup announced this weekend by the Cuban government, however, does not include two stars many had expected to play: outfielder Victor Mesa and flashy shortstop German Mesa, the hero in Cuba’s win over the United States during the 1991 Pan American Games held in Havana.

The pitchers include three of Cuba’s best – Jose Ariel Contreras, Jose Ibar and Pedro Luis Lazo.

The Orioles have struggled mightily since beating Cuba in March.The team is in last place, the players are being booed at Camden Yards and manager Ray Miller might not have his job by the end of the 12-game homestand Thursday.

So the Orioles can be forgiven if they don’t regard the game with great anticipation.

“Obviously, you’d like the club to have a day off,” Miller said.

That’s much the same attitude the Orioles carried into the first exhibition. But shortly after the playing of both country’s national anthems, their attitude changed.

“A lot more comes into it than just you or your team. Even though we weren’t really representing the U.S., we were in a way,” outfielder B.J. Surhoff said Sunday. “We were one team but we were representing a whole lot of people. They looked at it as their national team representing them.

“Down there I knew it would be really intense and they’d be into it. I’m kind of curious to see how it’s all going to play out tomorrow night.”

Miller hoped to rest his starters after six innings of that game, but the close score and high intensity caused him to stick with most ofhis stars for the entire contest. He will use his regular lineup Monday with the exception of his starting pitcher.

Scott Kamieniecki, who is on the disabled list, will start for Baltimore. The Orioles can only hope the Cubans don’t counter with Jose Contreras, who allowed two hits over eight shutout innings and struck out 10 in the first game.

While many of the Orioles consider the game a distraction, they realize the prestige associated with representing their country.

“There was a lot of pride taken over in Cuba. We did everything we could to win that game and I’m sure it will be no different over here,” backup catcher Lenny Webster said. “We hope to enjoy it, but at the same time we’re going to try and beat them.”

Almost 300 Cubans were to travel to Baltimore for the game, including reporters, retired players, members of youth groups and outstanding students.

Some of the better-known athletes in the delegation were former boxer Teofilo Stevenson, high jump world record-holder Javier Sotomayor and Connie Marrero, who once played with the Washington Senators and threw out the ceremonial first pitch in the first game.

Twenty-five school-age Cubans, accompanied by a group of parents, are scheduled to play a game Tuesday against a group of Baltimore-area Little Leaguers – just as a group of Americanyoungsters played Cuban children during their visit to Havana last month.

The Orioles will be wearing their traditional black, orange and white for the rematch, but they’ll be thinking red, white and blue.

“The important thing of every game is to win, no matter what kind of uniform you wear or who you represent,” Orioles pitcher Ricky Bones said Sunday. “This time we’re going to represent the United States. We should go out there with pride and try to win.” Associated Press