U.S. Beats Cuba For Olympic Baseball Gold

S Y D N E Y, Australia, Sept. 27, 2000 -- No dust-ups, no disputes, no dramatichomers. The Americans didn’t need any of them to get their firstbaseball gold medal.

A ragtag bunch of minor leaguers led by Hall of Fame manager TomLasorda beat mighty Cuba 4-0 today in a game that — stunningly— was no contest.

International baseball’s dynasty went down with only three hitsoff Ben Sheets, Milwaukee’s first-round draft pick last year, thenstood and watched as someone else celebrated after the title game.

Unflappable Sheets

Unlike Cuba’s 6-1 win over the Americans on Saturday, this onecame with no fussing or fighting. During the Americans’ only lossof the tournament, they wound up going face-to-face with the Cubansand exchanging angry words.

Today, however, Mike Neill hit a first-inning homer asthe Americans cranked it up early instead of late. Ernie Young — atthe center of Saturday’s bench-clearing dust-up — more than goteven with a bases-loaded single.

Catcher Pat Borders, who was spiked at home in that first game,also had an RBI double as an exquisite payback.

Those hits put the upset on the fingertips of Sheets, anunflappable right-hander who got 16 ground-ball outs in the firsteight innings, setting up a pulsating ninth.

With the Americans standing on the front step of their dugoutand a U.S. flag hanging behind the bench, Sheets strode calmly tothe mound to start the ninth.

He got Cuba’s first two hitters swinging — Luis Ulacia threw hishelmet at the side of his dugout after going down for the secondout.

When Neill made a sliding catch of Yasser Gomez’s fly in leftfield for the final out, Sheets fell to his knees and raised hisarm in celebration as players streamed toward him for a huddle onthe mound.

Soon, they piled up near the dirt at third and Lasorda — wearinga U.S. flag over his left shoulder, hugged his coaches while theplayers took a victory lap.

Livonia native Mike Kinkade played third base and went 0-for-4.Relief pitcher Shane Heams of Lambertville wasn’t needed todayas Sheets pitched a complete game.

World Series Feeling

The Cubans sat in their dugout stunned, knowing their dynastywas done.

The best team in international baseball had its 21-game winningstreak snapped with a loss to the Netherlands during thetournament, then had its hold on the gold broken by its biggestrival.

The long-awaited matchup had the trappings of a seventh WorldSeries game — and all the finality. Flashbulbs twinkled around thestadium as the U.S. team stood on the first base line and theCubans assembled along the other one for pregame introductions.

Lasorda, who wanted to beat Cuba for the exiles in Florida,walked over and shook the hand of manager Servio Borges in front ofthe plate.

Neill’s Blasts Win Games

Moments later, the Americans were spilling out of the dugoutafter Neill’s tension-breaking homer in the first — his second bighomer of the tournament.

He also won the opener against Japan with a game-ending homer inthe 13th. His two-out solo homer today came off Pedro LuisLazo, a closer who got a surprise start in the big game.

Lazo was gone in the second, replaced by the pitcher the UnitedStates really had a few things to settle with — Jose Ibar, who shutthe Americans out in Cuba’s feisty 6-1 win on Saturday and hadn’tallowed a run all tournament.

Ibar also hit Young in the back with a fastball in thatpreliminary game, bringing both teams off the benches to exchangenasty looks.

Young faced Ibar one more time in the fourth, grounding out.Young more than got even an inning later with a decisive hit offCuba’s hardest thrower.

Borders doubled home the first run off Ibar in the fifth.Right-hander Maels Rodriguez came on and sent a ripple through thecrowd by throwing a fastball that once registered 100 mph on thescoreboard.

Rodriguez also hit a batter and loaded the bases to bring upYoung, who slashed a 98 mph fastball up the middle for a two-runsingle and a 4-0 lead.

Young spun around and slammed his hands together at first whileU.S. players poured from the dugout to welcome the runners home.They sensed that the upset was at their fingertips.

More precisely, it was in Sheets’ right hand. His sinker keptthe tournament’s top-hitting team — a .344 average — from so muchas threatening.

Sheets retired 11 Cubans in a row and got 12 ground-ball outs inthe first six innings, when only one runner got as far as secondbase in the entire game. only one runner got as far as secondbase in the entire game.