Former Cuban president and baseball analyst maximo Fidel Castro pontificates on Cuba’s loss to Korea in the Olympic baseball finals:
Cuba’s Olympic baseball team showed an exemplary conduct. In Beijing, they twice defeated the U.S. selection, the country that invented that sport which, because of the commercial interests of big companies, was excluded from the Olympics. This year, 2008, is, for now, its last in the Olympics.
The final match against South Korea was dubbed the tensest and most extraordinary that the Olympics have ever known. The game was decided in the last inning, with three Cubans on base and an out.
The adversary’s professional baseball players were like batting machines. They had a left-handed pitcher who threw varied speed balls with surgical precision. An excellent team. Cubans do not practice the sport for profit. They are trained, as all our athletes are, to serve their country
and defect to the United States. Were this not the case, the country, small in size and of limited resources, would lose them forever. It would be impossible to calculate the value of the recreational and educational services they offer the nation in the course of their lives, in all provinces and the Isle of Youth.
We’ll miss you when you’ve gone, Fidel. OK, no we won’t, but you’ve still been entertaining.
16 Comments
The Isle of Youth?
Fidel, just die already, OK?
Its an island south of havanna, going get clobbered by gustav in a day or two
“Cubans do not practice the sport for profit. They are trained, as all our athletes are, to serve their country.”
… is Cuba’s get out clause… Korea won because they are professionals.
Well, I think the Cubans would be amateurs in name only.
Spielberg, Stone and Moore will miss him, though.
unlike some losers here, even Castro is complimenting that the Koreans won by skill.
The ump was trying to give it to the Cubans. That’s why Korea was on the ropes in the bottom of the 9th.
Ball, ball, ball, …
credit the pitcher, and the infield.
Any comments from Tio Fidel about the Cuban TaeKwonDo guy kicking the ref in the face?
Ladron,
Actually, Fidel claims that he wrote his august reflections as a result of the controversy surrounding Matos. It appears that Matos’ mother had died, so I suppose it was a combustible mix of grief and anger at being jobbed by the referee.
As an aside, I think the referee ought to have reminded the Cubans of the rule or asked them if they needed more time per rule. I know the referee simply followed the rules, but as anyone who has thought deeply about the law knows, a mechanical application of the law often results in injustice.
Won-
Very sympathetic of you and a good point(no sarcasm, I swear). But I am also forced to wonder how an OLYMPIC athlete going for the bronze in TaeKwonDo can full-on kick an unsuspecting man to the face and not knock his ass out, just bloody his lip a little.
Ladron,
I suspect either Matos didn’t intend to connect with full-force, or he missed slightly, and the kick thus became a glancing blow.
And Matos is not just an Olympian; he’s a former Olympic gold medalist. So he was among the presumptive favorites in Beijing.
I ought to add one more thing: As a former practitioner and occasional competitor, I can tell you that TKD has absolutely the worst refereeing of any sports with which I am familiar. Moreover, the rules themselves are horribly crafted and hence lend themselves to strange or unjust results. In short, it ought to go by the way of baseball and softball from the Olympics–at least until it reforms itself.
Won-
Yeah, I heard that TKD will most likely be voted out as an event the next time the do such things.
The people in charge are already announcing drastic changes in the rules, including using electronic sensors to score hits. I’ve been told though that they were being too hasty (i.e. the technical aspect is not quite ready) and was only trying to avoid being booted out of the Olympics when they vote next year.
And it wasn’t just the Cuban guy (though admittedly most visible)… there were far too many wtf moments (yes, that was intentional :-D) where you’d go “Wait, how is that not a score again?” during the Beijing olympics.
Cuba has produced some of the finest athletes and musicians ever. It is amazing how much talent has come from the one island.
#4. “Spielberg, Stone and Moore will miss him, though.”
ahahahah! i’m surprised that you’re not in the u.s. only someone from america would say something so moronic.
Re: #14
I couldn’t agree more !
But, my guess is that it’s not just raw talent, but talent that has the spare (idle) time to develop. What else are you going to do with your unemployed idle time ?