Baseball Ken Griffey Jr. and Barry Larkin, two former sacred monsters of Major League Baseball of America, are visiting Havana, where they chatted with fans. On a tour near the Central Park of the city, American baseball chatted with fans and signed dozens of autographs. Both stars arrived in Cuba on Saturday afternoon for a stay until Thursday, in which they hope to provide training clinics, specifically on batting, in some areas of the city, and donate some sports equipments and meet with Cuban sports officials. Griffey, 44, retired in 2010 after hitting 630 home runs, 6th in the list of all-time Major League and was able to combine his batting ability with foot speed, arm strength and defensive ability. Meanwhile, Larkin, 49, played 18 consecutive Seasons for the Cincinnati Reds, with a key performance in the final triumph of 1990. He won 9 times the Silver Bat, 3 times the Gold Glove, and was included in 2012 to the demanding Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. And regarding baseball, it was known that Cuba reflects on reinforce its baseball for coming Caribbean Series as Villa Claras performance in the recent Caribbean Series in Margarita Island-2014, put Cuban baseball in the eye of a hurricane, fact that will cause some changes, said Victor Mesa, national coach. Talking to Prensa Latina news agency, Mesa regretted the last position of Villa Clara in the regional competition and stressed the need of continue working to play at least, for the championship in next editions of this Series. There will be made meetings to analyze if we go to tournaments with the National Series Champions team or with a selection of the whole series to look it better. So far we are thinking about the champion team but well reinforce, warned Mesa, national coach until 2017. Villa Claras team had the worst performance of a Cuban club in the history of the Caribbean Series, ranking last in Margarita Island, with barely a win and three failures, as well as its alarming poverty in every order during the games. The team of Cuba, country that back to the Caribbean Series after more than five decades of absence, only choose six reinforces to face the tournament, while its rivals chosen around 12, mainly pitchers. Olympic champion in Barcelona-1992 and five times world champion, Mesa stressed also that for Cuba, we have to look at least to play for championship, or classify between the great, and not in the last place, because thus Cuban baseballs level seems to be lost. Víctor Mesa, loved by many and criticized by many others by his way of guide his teams, described as important the insertion of Cuban players in foreign leagues, as last year did it the slugger Alfredo Despaigne, the catcher Ariel Pestano, 1st baseman Yordanis Samón and 3rd baseman Michel Enríquez, said Mesa talking to Prensa Latina. He also admitted the high level of the Caribbean Series, but added that this tournament is under the World Classic, currently elite tournament of the world baseball. The Caribbean Series has nothing to do with the World Classic, this is a strongest tournament, it gathers a great galaxy of baseball players, said Mesa. The performance of Villa Clara in Margarita Island caused a severe storm of critics by the specialized press, in and out of the country, mainly of them focused in the urgency of radical changes to increase the level of Cuban baseball. In Margarita Island, the team of Naranjeros de Hermosillo (México) conquered the title defeating in the great final 7-1 to Puerto Ricos Los Indios de Mayagüez. Behind Mexicans and Puerto Rican placed Navegantes de Magallanes from Venezuela, Tigres del Licey, from Dominican Republic, and Cubas Villa Clara, only team eliminated in semifinals. Next edition of the Caribbean Series will take place in 2015, at the Hiram Bithorn Stadium, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Cuba is planning how to reinforce its baseball to strongly besiege teams for such tournaments. Judo Cuba said goodbye to the Judo Grand Slam of Paris, France, with Idalis Ortiz bronze medal in more than 78 kilos, a contest won by Japan with 4 gold, 1 silver and 6 bronze medals, and which Cuba attended with 9 judokas under the supervision of Veitía Ronaldo (4) and Justo Noda (5). Escorted Japan (4-1-6) in the overall medal table by country were France (2-5-5) and South Korea (2-0-1), while Cuba (0-0-1) finished in 15th place, thanks to 2 fifth places and 1 seventh place earned. In women, the top 3 were for Japan (3-1-2), France (1-4-3) and the Netherlands (1-0-2), in a contest that brought together 472 athletes -- 293 men and 179 women-- from 73 nations.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Feb 2014 21:02:15 +0000
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