Olympics, Day 2

News from games on Day 2 of the Olympic baseball tournament featuring the three European teams:

Japan 8, Netherlands 3

Japan came from behind to beat the Dutch team. While many American papers described this as a "pounding", the Japanese Kyodo News service noted that the all-star team from Asia's top professional league looked "shaky" early in the game.

On his web site, Dutch baseball reporter Marco Stoovelaar focused on two controversial umpiring decisions that occured in the game:

In the fifth, with one out, Japanese batter Shinya Miyamoto bunted and was called safe at first base by Dominican umpire Agustin Brea. A crucial call, because television replays showed the batter was out. Moments later, a groundout followed which would have been the third out. Instead, Japan now had a runner on second base with two outs. After a walk, powerhitter Norihiro Nakamura hit an RBI-double to tie the score, followed by two walks which gave Japan a 4-3 lead.

Dutch Manager Robert Eenhoorn decided to bring in Eelco Jansen to relief starter Diegomar Markwell, but then his Japanese colleague suddenly filed a protest, as the Dutch line-up card only listed the ten starting pitchers. It was stated that Jansen therefore was not eligible to come in. What followed was a delay of 24 minutes, after which it was decided by the Technical Commissioners that the change was according to the rules. The Dutch team continued playing under protest, filing a protest of their own for deliberately delaying the game and trying to end the game prematurely by Japan. This protest, however, was rejected within a few minutes.

De Telegraaf also reported the odd incident.

Cuba 5, Greece 4

Jim White of Britain's Daily Telegraph watched the Greeks collect their second loss, at the hands of Cuba, 5-4, and was impressed by the local baseball novices' enthusiasm for the game. "The bleachers in the new baseball stadium were absolutely packed", he reports.

The BBC interviewed Greece's ex-Major Leaguer Clay Bellinger, who was also impressed by the fans:

"We are trying to give a good show and were hoping to be embraced like this," he said of the exuberant if sometimes confused welcome given by local fans.

"They have soccer cheers going on in a baseball stadium," he added. "Hopefully they will realise just how fun a sport it is to come and watch."

Lawrence Donegan of Britain's Guardian newspaper best understood the significance of the score:

The mighty Cuban team last night defeated a Canadian rivet salesman, a mortgage broker, a former New York Yankee and a bunch of guys who raised their hand when a scout walked into baseball dressing rooms from Nebraska to Florida and asked: "Anyone in here Greek?" But it was a close-run thing.

Three runs in the top of the ninth inning by the home team briefly threatened to send the Cubans - a perennial power at the Olympic level - off to the same doghouse occupied by the US basketball team, but in the end they escaped with a 5-4 win over a makeshift team that owes its presence here to the kind of genealogical research once the preserve of the former Ireland football manager Jack Charlton.

...

Bellinger, who actually won two World Series rings as a Yankee, came up with Greece's first run against the Cubans, dashing in from third base on an error by the catcher, Ariel Pestano, at the top of the fourth inning. That cut the Cuban lead to 2-1 and whipped the home fans into something like a frenzy. In a week marked by empty arenas and national anthems bouncing off empty walls, it was heartening to see such a bubbling crowd - even if, in their lack of baseball knowledge, they were occasionally enthusiastic about the wrong things.

Canada 9, Italy 3

"We played badly," Italian manager Giampiero Faraone told the Canadian Press news service. "We actually offered our opponents nine runs. With such a weak defence, it's hard to beat a team as strong as the Canadians."