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...
champion olympic team
This team is the world champion and the Olympic champion. We didn't get that for free.
brings defend flag love men players team together
You have a team of men and not of names. If you don't play as a team, you have to defend the flag of your country. You have to defend your homeland, the love for your country. That is what brings together the players in a team.
baseball both came cuban days game great losing mercy patiently played players rule strong teams wait
Both teams played great baseball. Two days ago we told everyone to wait patiently for today's game... This is what Cuban baseball is all about. Our players wanted to come back strong after losing in a mercy rule game and they came through.
continued courage fight team
Our team doesn't give up. Our team continued to fight with courage but it was very difficult.
cuban quality simply team won
This wasn't a gift. We won this. The Cuban team simply had to come and show the quality of Cuban baseball.
against asian great latin played similar teams
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.
good hard manly mean men others team
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.
best cause cuba great happened lost means mercy pitchers team
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.
begins classic far gained happened tournament valuable
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.
basis cuba good mercy occur regular repeat rule using
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.
forgot great hard humble love millions provide recognize respect sacrifice succeeded themselves time work
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.
courage cuba players seen shown
Now we've shown what Cuba can do. Now we've seen the courage of the players when they went out into the field.
baseball enjoy event fight four held rather together wait
Let's fight together so this event won't be held every four years but rather every two, so the baseball world won't have to wait so long to enjoy this.
break happens money player
Our players, when they play, don't think, I'm going to break my hand. Because the player that has money sometimes thinks, What happens if I break my hand?