Elliott: Canada shunts Olympic power Cuba to sidelines

Ontario Blue Jays alum SS Daniel Pinero (Toronto, Ont.) takes a hack as Canada edged Cuba to eliminate the international power 6-5 at the Americas Qualifier in St. Lucie, Fla., on Tuesday.

June 2, 2021

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

Early one morning in 2003, I spoke to Ernie Whitt via phone in Panama.

In the background a bunch of Canadians were singing “Oh Canada.”.

Whitt was explaining who did what in the win over Mexico to clinch a spot in the 2004 Olympics in Athens. It was Canada’s first Olympic berth when baseball was a medal sport. Mexico had eliminated Team USA earlier.

Finally I asked, “How many left-handed hitters did you have in your lineup?”

Whitt answered “Eight ... but I had options.”

What were the options?

“I could have gone with nine,” deadpanned Whitt, one of the most popular Blue Jays ever.

Whether it was growing up playing hockey and shooting left or shovelling snow, as Aaron Guiel (Langley, BC) suggested one day in the Athletes Village in Athens, the best Canuck hitters were all left-handed.

Not at the sandlot level where it was basically 50-50 between left and right-handed hitters, but consider Hall of Famer Larry Walker (Maple Ridge, BC), Justin Morneau (New Westminster, BC), Joey Votto (Etobicoke, Ont.), George (Twinkletoes) Selkirk (Huntsville, Ont.), Jeff Heath (Fort William, Ont.) and Matt Stairs (Saint John, NB). All lefty swingers.

So Canada saw mostly lefties on the international stage. In the second game of the Americas qualifier for the Tokyo Olympics, they saw their second consecutive right-handed starter. And then a right-handed reliever. The five runs scored off the two right-handers led to an ahem, never-in doubt, 6-5 win for 13th ranked Canada over seventh ranked Cuba.

The victory, before a noisy crowd of 2,503 at Clover Park in St. Lucie, Fla., advanced Canada to the second round of the qualifier. The final game of the round robin will be played Wednesday afternoon against Venezuela. Both teams are 2-0 and will advance to the Super Round, which begins Friday. The team with the best record gets a spot in the Olympics. The second and third-place teams advance to a final chance qualifier in Mexico for the sixth and final Olympic berth.

The last time Canada saw back-to-back right-handers?

“I don’t think ever ... since I’ve been here,” said 3B Eric Wood, who has been part of the program since 2017 competing in this his fifth competition.

The Canucks scored twice in the first inning on Monday against a right-hander from Colombia and racked up three in the first Tuesday night with a station-to-station, put-the-ball-in play, two-strike approach. No one was swinging to try and hit the ball to Epcot Center at Disney.

Wes Darvill (Langley, BC) reached on an infield single up the middle and scored when Wood (Oshawa, Ont.) one hopped the left-field fence for a double. Next, Connor Panas (North York, Ont.) blooped a ball to centre and after a walk to Danny Pinero (Toronto, Ont.), Kellin Deglan (Langley, BC) singled to centre. Darvill, Panas and Deglan are three of the five left-handed hitters in the Canadian lineup.

And that was it for starter Carlos Viera, usually a reliever. He faced seven hitters, retired two and was given the hook during the game by manager Armando Ferrer and then tossed under the bus post game.

“We lost the game in the first inning, Viera was not good in the first inning,” Ferrer told reporters. “He was only able to get two outs. The decision to start him was made collectively.”

Viera pitched seven seasons in the Cuban National Series for Victoria Las Tunas, Industriales La Habana, Cocodrilos de Matanzas, Alazanes de Granma and one season each with the Tigres de Aragua in Venezuela and Caneros de Los Mochis in Mexico.

While in Cuba, he went 40-28 with a 3.10 record in seven seasons striking out 342 in 507 1/3 innings. After the 2014-15 season, he missed three years.

Panas singled in a run in the third and Michael Crouse (Port Moody, BC) homered deep into the night in the seventh facing Yariel Rodriguez, who struck out 11 in 6 1/3 innings. The Crouse homer gave Canada a four-run lead.

It needed that and more, the eventual lead run coming on a J.D. Osborne (Whitby, Ont.) walk and a two-out infield hit by Jacob “Beep-Beep” Robson (Windsor, Ont.)

Former Team Ontario RHP John Axford (Port Dover, Ont.) struck out the final hitter to eliminate Cuba from the Olympics.

Cuba scored two unearned runs in the seventh facing lefty Evan Rutckyj (Windsor, Ont.). Next, Scott Mathieson (Aldergove, BC) pitched a dominant eighth -- 10 pitches nine strikes, two called third strikes -- before giving up two hits in the ninth. Cuban legend Frederich Cepeda, 41, in his 24th season, pinch hit and delivered a fly ball that scored one run and then John Axford (Port Dover, Ont.) came on with a two-run lead to slam the door.

Axford fielded a chopper over the mound from Yordanis Samon and threw wildly on the run, allowing Roel Santos to score. But Axford has been in tough spots before. He struck out Lisban Correa to earn hugs from Deglan and Chris Leroux (Mississauga, Ont.).

UP NEXT: Canada plays Venezuela this afternoon. On one hand Canada’s goal of advancing has been accomplished, but it is far from a nothing game. The Canucks will start lefty Travis Seabrooke (Peterborough, Ont.) who is with the Winnipeg Goldeyes and has pitched four innings in relief this season.

Since records of teams not advancing do not carry over the wins over Colombia and Cuba will not count.

“We want to go into the crossover into the next round 1-0,” said Whitt. “We’ll have to pull out all the strings and do whatever it takes to win.

“It will be a quick turnaround.”

The last time we heard Whitt say “quick turnaround” was in Athens after Kevin Nicholson (Surrey, BC) saw his bid for a game-tying three-run homer die in the wind at the warning track. Canada lost bronze to Japan the next day.

CUBA vs. CANADA: We have seen Stubby Clapp and Pete LaForest crack Cuban catchers on plays at the plate. We have seen Cuban players do the same, stepping out, asking for time late -- and getting it from the plate ump. We’ve heard Cubans yell at the Canada bench and Canucks at the Cuban bench -- without ever knowing if either side understood. Cuba is Canada’s biggest rivalry, next to Team USA.

So it would have been perfect to see Whitt sit down at the post-game podium and steal a line from the Godfather when Michael Corleone said, “We settled all family business tonight ...”

Whitt was staid in his answer stating: “It’s a great rivalry, built over the years and it was a another great game tonight. I have mellowed. I don’t yell as much. Cuba always battles you, but so do our players and we were fortunate to come out on top.”

Looking at the Cuba win and looking ahead at the same time Whitt said: “We had some mistakes in the seventh and in the ninth [and] we made it close. I like to see us scoring first, I don’t like to see us giving away extra outs.”

AN OLYMPICS WITHOUT CUBA? Yup. Providing the Olympics go. Cuba had won medals in every Olympics since 1992 including gold in 1992, 1996, and 2004.

“It hurts to be out of the Olympics,” Ferrer told reporters. “You who are Cuban know how joyful our public is. We are sorry for not qualifying. We were defending our four letters.”

CANUCKS NOT FAVES: Despite big-league baseball plucking many players and defections, Cuba was still the fave both in the world rankings and with the Florida crowd.

“We loved the crowd, it has been very quiet in the games played,” Whitt said. “We were not the hometown favourite we had a hostile crowd

BACK YOU GO: Two walks and a passed ball had Tyson Gillies (Langley, BC) on third. Wood swung and missed a 2-2 offspeed pitch, the ball went to the screen and Gillies scored. Not so fast. Plate ump Edward Pinales waved off the play, signalling a foul ball. The replay showed Wood had missed strike three.

However, the International Umpiring Court that sits in The Hague, Netherlands had closed its doors for the night. So after the umps conferred and the play stood, Wood struck out and after a walk, so, too, did Pinero.

FLASHBACK: Wood said the win reminded him of Canada’s 8-6 win over Cuba at the 2019 Pan Am Games.

“It was deja vu, like in Peru when we went up in the first inning,” said Wood.

LF Panas hit a three-run homer in the first en route to a five-RBI day and 1B Jordan Lennerton (Langley, BC) drove in three runs without a hit. SS Darvill and 3B Wood each had three hits. Leroux pitched scoreless ball from the sixth through the eighth. Ryan Kellogg (Whitby, Ont.) picked of the win.

ON THE MOUND: Kellogg gave his team a chance to win working 3 2/3 scoreless ... Dustin Molleken (Regina, Sask.) everyone’s favourite teammate, took over and pitched 2 1/3 innings giving up one run ... Then it was Rutckyj, Mathieson and Axford, who had not pitched for Canada since the 2013 World Baseball Classic.

IF IT IS TIME FOR BP, IT MUST BE RAINING: Darvill was in the batter’s box set to face the first pitch. And just like at a Miami Marlins game where it rains every night during batting practice, the skies opened. Except this was not a routine sprinkle. Rains delayed play fpr an hour and 45 minutes.

BBBB-BALK: There was Barn-yard ball late in the game. In the bottom of the seventh Evan Rutckyj (Windsor, Ont.) was called for a balk to move a runner to second with Canada leading 5-3 ... And in the top of the eighth Livan Moinelo balked Osborne up 90 feet

GOLD STARS: Shortstop Pinero made a solid play on a grounder deep on the grass in the second ... Two batters later with a man on second, Darvill dove to spear the third out and save a run ... And in the fifth when Cuba had runners on first and second, Canada turned a 6-4-3 double play but only because Panas made a back-handed scoop to excavate Darvill’s throw in the dirt.

ON THE DIET COKE OUT-OF-TOWN SCOREBOARD: 8th ranked Venezuela edged 14-ranked Colombia 3-2 ... 15th ranked Nicaragua defeated 11th ranked Puerto Rico 7-6 ... Host No. 2 ranked USA beat the 10th ranked Dominican Republic and Jose Bautista 8-6.