El Loco, that is what they call Victor Mesa, the great Cuban center-fielder who now is sitting behind home plate in a near-empty Estadio Latin Americano. On Sunday, when his team meets the United States, this joint will be jammed with 55,000 screaming and stomping, whistling and flag-waving fans who regard baseball with the same fervor of the most ardent Bleacher Bum.
For the game is nothing less than the national pastime here, and Sunday`s affair has been discussed and debated in bars and on street corners ever since the Pan Am Games opened nine days ago. The players representing Cuba are revered heroes, arguably behind only Fidel Castro in fame, and when manager Jorge Fuentes is asked about Raoul Castro`s visit for a game, he only can shrug at so obvious a question.
”Everyone,” he says, ”wants to have their picture taken with us.”
”They have good hitters. There`s money on that team,” Mesa says with a nod toward the dugout where the U.S. is gathering for a practice. ”But (Cuban fans) expect us to win, just like boxing. Victory. That`s all the people hope for. So there`s some tension. It`s pressure. A little pressure, but it is something you`re comfortable with.
”We know we`re No. 1. We`re special. We can never retreat. We are not obligated to win. But we always have to be good.”
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It is the world champion, that is how good Cuba now is, and in its first five games at this little festival, its varied virtues have been on display for all to see. It defeated Nicaragua 16-4, putting it away in an eighth inning that featured a steal of home by the 30-year-old Mesa and consecutive home runs by left-fielder Orestes Kindelan, first baseman Lourdes Gurriel and designated hitter Romelio Martinez.
It then stomped Mexico 22-0 in a game stopped after seven (a KO that is called) and beat Canada 14-0 on Jorge Valdes` no-hitter. Finally came an 8-3 victory over the Netherland Antilles and a 16-2 triumph over Puerto Rico in which Cuba`s finest player proved as tough as he is talented. He is 23-year-old third baseman Omar Linares and he picked himself up from a brushback and poleaxed the next pitch 450 feet into the deepest reaches of the bleachers.
He has hit better than .400 in four different seasons, a feat unmatched even on this island with a great baseball tradition, and when asked to pick out Linares` most memorable performance, Fuentes can only shake his head.
”I couldn`t pick one,” he says. ”He has excellent contact, he has excellent power, and he`s the fastest player on the team.
”I`ve seen him hit five home runs in a game. In his stadium, which is like this stadium in center field (where the fence is 400 feet away), he hit one that hit the ninth inning on the scoreboard. It was 500 feet at least. He`s a monster.”
And Mesa?
”He`s crazy. He`s loose. He`ll steal home. He`s non-stop. He`s in front of everybody. He`ll take on anything.”
That is just what Cuba`s team has done over the last quarter-century, taken on-and usually defeated-anything thrown at it. As its victories mounted, as its titles accumulated, a not-uncertain aura started to surround it, and many came to regard it with wonder and awe. Its players were mysterious figures from an island cloaked in secrecy, and much like the Wizard of Oz, they appeared only when a curtain was pulled back and they magically appeared at some tournament.
But they are gathered, in fact, from all over an island where baseball, says Fuentes, ”is an education. From small towns to big cities, all the time they play. From 10-year-olds to adults who still play. It is a system with a lot of participation. Everybody just plays.”
The leagues (”There are so many I couldn`t give you a number,” Fuentes says.) in each of the island`s 18 provinces play 112-game schedules, and then begins the process that results in the national team. First, from November through January, comes a national series where each province enters a team. Then, from late January through late April, there is a select series in which just eight teams compete. Only after this thorough examination are the players who will represent Cuba selected.
”We have,” Fuentes also explains, ”a school for all the managers on how to play baseball the way we play. It is not so much a style, but a technical way of playing baseball.
”The number one characteristic of the Cuban baseball player is that he`s always moving, always fundamentally sound. He can hit to all fields. He can bunt. He can run. Naturally Cubanos are fast people, but the best thing about this team is that we`ve been able to combine it with power. We have 20 home runs in five games. But our natural characteristic is we`re fast, and not just on offense. On defense, too.
”But in baseball, and in life, you can`t teach some things. It is natural in you, just like the power in a player. You cannot change a man. We work with them a lot. Teach them a lot. But the first thing we do is find talent. You can`t make gold. But we will take the diamond from the coal.”
”I`m sure,” Mesa adds, ”there are some players not on this team good enough for the big leagues. A lot of people even in this country don`t see them much, but they are very good. If we had a third team here (the second just won the European Cup), we`d win the bronze medal with that with not much difficulty.”
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They have won five consecutive Pan Am gold medals, but on this day their practice startles eyes weaned on the major leagues. Mesa was once good enough to play there, and that is certainly true now of the brilliant Linares. Left- fielder Kindelan and left-hander Valdes, shortstop German Mesa (no relation) and second baseman Antonio Pacheco also possess major-league ability.
Yet here, as they toil, there is no batting cage, and word is there is not one on the island. Starting pitchers are throwing batting practice, and all players are in their game uniforms. They travel by bus when they tour the island for exhibitions and often sleep on cots in the locker room of the stadium in which they are playing. All have other jobs to supplement their salaries, and Mesa says his is a mere 233 pesos per month in a country where jeans can cost 110.
”We`re supposed to be parallel, but everyone comes up to me,” he continues.
”I go to a store and try to buy something, they don`t let me pay. I don`t like that. I go to a restaurant and am standing at the cash register, they won`t let me pay. Other guys, too. They look out for you.
”We get good equipment, but the clothes and food are the same. That`s one thing I don`t like about the United States. The players and people don`t know each other. They live apart. I`m not criticizing. But that`s my impression, and that`s what I`ve been told.”
Would you have liked to have played in the majors, he is asked.
”If the government would have accepted it,” he says. ”But I can`t abandon my country.”
”Some games here,” Fuentes concludes, ”people are crazy. So everybody
(on the team) puts everything into it because we know it is our responsibility. Our whole world is depending on us.”
