By Reuters and The Associated Press. The Seattle Times. Thursday, June 22, 2000, 12:00 a.m. Pacific
HAVANA - Cuba, which will seek its third consecutive Olympic baseball title in the Sydney Games, yesterday announced a powerful 50-member preliminary squad headed by prolific home-run hitters Omar Linares and Orestes Kindelan.
The selected group, from which the final team of 24 players to travel to Australia in September will be drawn, began training yesterday.
Kindelan, with 453 home runs to his credit in 19 national series, and Linares, who has hit 387 homers in 18 series, were both members of the all-conquering Cuban sides that won the Olympic baseball titles in Barcelona in 1992 and Atlanta in 1996.
Along with Antonio Pacheco, another Olympic veteran, they will provide the heavy artillery for the Cuban squad, which could face tough opposition in Sydney.
"We hear that Japan, South Korea and Australia are training hard. We haven't heard much about the United States," national baseball coach Benito Camacho said.
The pitchers selected for the preliminary squad included Norge Luis Vera, one of eight players drawn from the Santiago de Cuba team, which won this year's Cuban national championship.
Among other Olympic veterans drafted were pitchers Pedro Luis Lazo, Jose Ariel Contreras and Jose Ibar, shortstop German Mesa, catcher Juan Manrique and first baseman Antonio Scull.
The government places special importance on the performance of the baseball team in international events. It views its success as a source of prestige for Cuba's socialist system.
But Cuban baseball has been hit in recent years by a series of morale-sapping defections by talented players.
Notes
USA Swimming, concerned some competitors may not have access to the full-length bodysuits that are revolutionizing the sport, was to decide today whether to bar them from being used at the U.S. swimming trials in August at Indianapolis.
Chuck Wielgus, the organization's executive director, decided to recommend a bodysuit ban that would apply only to the trials.
"The issue of fairness is at the forefront," said Charlie Snyder, a spokesman for USA Swimming.
"Starting as soon as possible, we will try to get the swim manufacturers to fit the top athletes so they can experiment and train with the suits as they prepare for Sydney, as well as the trials," Snyder said.
Margie Engle, riding Hidden Creek's Perin, was the only rider out of 75 to have a clean round on the first day of the first stage of Olympic show jumping team trials at the United States Equestrian Team headquarters in Gladstone, N.J.
Engle, of Wellington, Fla., had no jumping faults over a 14-fence course set at 5 feet, 3 inches.
Ray Texel, also of Wellington, on Pershing, and Alison Firestone, of Middleburg, Va., on Jox, had no jumping faults and just a quarter-time fault.
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