Higinio Velez
Higinio Velez
Higinio Vélez Carriónis a Cuban baseball manager. After leading Santiago de Cuba to three straight championships in the Cuban National Series, he became the manager of the Cuban national baseball team, which he led to the gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics...
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That means that Cuba is a great team because if not it would have lost many times under the mercy rule. But that's only happened twice. Our second-line pitchers did not come through and we couldn't use our best pitchers today. That was the fundamental cause of our defeat.
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He wasn't his best today, he didn't have his usual velocity or his control.
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He was happy just like the rest of the people in Cuba. We're happy because of how far Cuba has advanced in this Classic, and now he just is waiting for us to do our best in the field to show the world and show everybody else how good baseball is played in Cuba.
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I don't like to make predictions, but the only thing I can assure everyone is that we will give our best to bring the people a great show. Everything else will be left up to what happens on the field.
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What's happened so far in the Classic is history. For us, the tournament begins today. In the first round, we gained some valuable experience.
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These are things that simply happen in the game of baseball. If this were to occur on a frequent basis for Cuba, this would be rather worrisome. But this is not the case.
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Some people say our athletes are isolated and besieged. Whoever wants to go into exile can just walk away or stand next to a policeman. Our players are not prisoners. Simply, our athletes are besieged because people want to turn them into merchandise. But they want to play for their country. They want to continue to play for the love of their flag ... They're not interested in millions. Whoever wants to leave can leave in peace. We all play without thinking about money.
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The President did not demand us to win the tournament, but he told us that we should play well, and teach the world how baseball is played in Cuba.
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We know the Asians. We have played against the Asians, we know how the Asian teams play, and they're great players. They put everything into the field, great effort, very similar to Latin American players.
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When I said that this was a team made of men and not names, I didn't mean that the others were not men. They're as manly as we are. We're all men and good men and hard men and manly men.
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For you, some of the media and press that follow baseball, it might have been a surprise. It's normal for us. This is the way we play baseball in Cuba.
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For us, the Classic starts today and the rest is history.
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I'd like to repeat that Cuba is still a very good team. If this were to occur on a regular basis - using the mercy rule on us - it would be worrisome.
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I'd like to recognize the work of the professional ballplayers, who for the first time forgot about the millions (of dollars) they make and thought about themselves to come here and provide a great show. We love and respect the major-leaguers, because most of them come from very humble backgrounds, and have succeeded with hard work, sacrifice and great effort.