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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
baseball beat cuban sweat wants whoever
This is Cuban baseball. Cuba is not gone. We're still here to play and whoever wants to beat Cuba will have to sweat it out.
baseball fans great watch
The fans should be happy. That was a great show. They got to watch what baseball is in Cuba.
gift given
It was not a gift that was given to Cuba. We were put in that pool. It was called the 'death pool,' the 'death group,' and we made it through to the final.
baseball games great
It was a great spectacle. In games like this, baseball wins.
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 frequent game happen occur rather simply
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.