Press Release International Baseball Federation, www.ibaf.org
CUBA’S GONZALEZ JUST MISSES STRIKEOUT MARK: Cuban pitcher Miguel Gonzalez today struck out ten consecutive batters against Puerto Rico, one short of the World Cup mark of 11 set by former Major Leaguer Burt Hooton (Dodgers and Cubs) of the USA in 1971. Gonzalez struck out 13 with one walk in 6 1/3 innings in earning the win for Cuba.
SPAIN HAS TWIN ORIOLES: Spain’s baseball playing twin brothers, Daniel and Paco Figueroa, spent last season with the Bowie Baysox of the AA Eastern League, and are property of the Baltimore Orioles. They are so alike they even spent the same time on the disabled list last season, but with different injuries. Both have been impressive at the plate thus far, with Daniel going 3-8 and Paco 3-7 in Spain’s 1-1 start.
MEXICO. NICARAGUA KINGS OF THE HILL THUS FAR: Through their first two games, neither Mexico nor Nicaragua have allowed an earned run. Mexico’s pitchers have 23 strikeouts and have allowed 12 hits in 18 innings, while Nicaragua has allowed one unearned run in their first two games, both of which they have won by mercy rule.
FORMER MAJOR LEAGUE STARS WALKER, PIAZZA, WHITT ON THE COACHING LINES: Team Canada’s continued success stems from their coaching staff. Head coach Ernie Whitt spent 15 seasons in the Major Leagues as a catcher with the Blue Jays, Braves, Red Sox and Orioles, and was a 1985 All-Star. Canadian coach Larry Walker spent 17 seasons with the Montreal Expos, Colorado Rockies, and St. Louis Cardinals and was National League Most Valuable Player in 1997 and was a five time All-Star. Italy will begin play in Round Two and will have Mike Piazza on their bench. Piazza, easily one of the greatest catchers in Major League history, was a 16 year veteran for the Dodgers, Marlins, Mets and Padres and was a 10 time all-star.
LEAVE TV, MANAGE PUERTO RICO: ESPN Baseball Tonight analyst Eduardo Perez took a leave from ESPN to manage the Puerto Rican team. ¨They were good to me,¨ he said. ¨They gave me 30 days to manage Puerto Rico in the World Cup.¨ Perez, the son of Hall of Famer Tony Perez, said he is proud to do it. He played for seven Major League teams from his debut with the Angels in 1993 to his retirement after playing for the Mariners in 2006. That same year, he became a Baseball Tonight analyst. He played college ball at Florida State and played the 2001 year in Japan with the Hanshin Tigers.
MAZZOTTI TRIES TO BRING ITALIAN SUCCESS TO SPAIN: Mauro Mazzotti, 50, is the only manager to win three Italian Serie A championships, Rimini 1999, Bologna 2003 and 2005 and Grosseto in 2007. Currently he manages Rimini, which spent most of this past season in first place in the Italian League, but his goal now is to get Spain into round two of the World Cup as the manager for the national team. Mazzotti, who has a degree physical education, speaks three languages, his native Italian, English and has handled press conferences a the World Cup in Spanish. He has been a scout in Europe for the Seattle Mariners and became the coordinator for the scouting in Europe for the Houston Astros.
ITALIANS IN SPANISH BASEBALL NOT UNCOMMON: Mazzotti is not the first Italian coach to manage the Spanish National Team. Pepe Guilizzoni, the technical commissioner for the Barcelona tournament, also managed the Spanish national team. The veteran on many Italian campaigns coached the Spanish from 1884 to 1988. Guilizzoni brought Spain to its first World Cup in 1988. He had coached the national team to third in the European tournament the year before and since Italy was a host team, Spain qualified. He was also the first coach from Spain in any sport to bring a team to play in post-Revolutionary Cuba when the Spanish national baseball team played there in 1988. Guilizzoni, who played his first baseball game in 1954, married in Milano in 1965. In 1967, he was in need of a job and came up with the idea of a baseball team. He put an ad in a newspaper in the Milano suburban town of Novara. In Nov. 1967, he formed the team that played its first game in March of 1968. It later became part of the lore of Italian baseball.
JAPANESE TAKE A DIFFERENT ROUTE TO BUILD A ROSTER: Team Japan, even though comprising amateur players and coaches from the industrial teams only, has a number of forthcoming draft hopefuls of Nippon Professional League on this World Cup roster, and is 2-0 thus far. Manager Yasuhiko Sugimoto lead the Japanese National Team at the 2005 World cup, Inter-Continental Cup in 2006 and to the top of the Asian Championship in 2009. Most of the players joined the 2009 Asian Championship except for the pitchers, which had been represented by college players only, and are veterans of international competitions. Star players include Takashi Saito, left handed pitcher (East Japan?Railway), Hisayoshi Chono, outfielder (Honda), Kenji Suzuki, catcher (Nippon Express) . Ikuhiro Kiyota, outfielder, (NTT East-Japan) and the M.V.P. of Asian Championship last August as well as Keiji Ikebe, outfielder (Nippon Oil ENEOS) are key members of this Japanese team.
ATTENDANCE STRONG: Day three saw a near-capacity crowd of almost 10,000 attend the Germany-USA game in Regensburg, while the largest crowd ever for Sweden, almost 2,500 was on hand for the Sweden-Korea game in Sundbyberg. The first two days of play saw standing room crowds in Barcelona for Cuba-Puerto Rico (capacity 2,500), near capacity crowds of over 5,500 in Regensburg, Germany, a first day crowd of 2,500 in Prague and a crowd of over 1,500 in Sundyberg. Ticket sales in the Netherlands and Italy for the second round are also very strong, with teams at select sites still to be determined.
THE DIGNITARY WATCH: Cuban consul to Barcelona Carlos Castillo attended Friday’s game vs. South Africa in Barcelona. Former International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch attended Spain’s opening win over South Africa…Samaranch was instrumental in bringing baseball to the Olympic programme in Barcelona in 1992…baseball was denied re-entry into the Olympics for 2016 recently, making it the largest sport in the world not on the Olympic programme…on Thursday, Bruce Bourbeau, the U.S. consul stationed in Barcelona was joined by Ayaz Hussain, consul general from Pakistan for the Puerto Rico-Cuba game.
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