Cuba Baseball Coaches Get Rough with Canadian Umpires
HAVANA TIMES — The Cuban team (5-16) playing in the Can-Am baseball league in Canada ended its play for the season with a 6-5 loss to the league leading Rockland Boulders (30-10) on Thursday evening.
It was in the top of the ninth inning that all hell broke loose after an overturned call, as the entire coaching staff got violent with the umpires in a highly embarrassing finish.
The incident has not appeared in the government controlled Cuban news media.
After the Cubans display of bad sportsmanship the game was called with two outs and team Cuba batting in the top of the ninth with a runner on base.
Playing in the Can-Am league for part of its season for the second consecutive year, the Cuban baseball federation has sought to give much needed international play for the national team, especially its younger players.
For all the information on the Cuban team’s performance in the Can-Am league click here.
Here’s the video of Thursday night’s melee:
Time for numerous sports to take a leaf out of the Laws of Rugby Football.
Rugby has ‘laws’ not ‘rules’. Referees are not allowed to change their decisions, hence there is no point in players disputing decisions. If in doubt at national level, referees may postpone their decision until an instant film review is taken.
But having played the game at a high level for many seasons, I can recall referees having taken a decision, apologizing to the players: “Sorry lads” but they still had to adhere to their decision.
The bad behaviour which is so common in so many sports today is both unseemly and detrimental to the very meaning of sport. As for coaches, they should remain off the field of play and be banned for a month if in breach!
Yeah, I mean not even a question mark on this one. So Cuba didn’t show this live?
Your assumptions are wrong. I can tell you that in the 30+ -year history of Olympic TaeKwonDo, the Cuban competitor who kicked the center judge is the only competitor to ever do so.
The “pattern” I see, Moses, relates to your assumption that Cubans on the island are the only baseball players or coaches that ever have major disagreements with umpires or that…what-was-it?…Cuba’s Tae Kwon Do team years ago was the only team in the Olympics to have ever engaged in a dispute. By pointing out your bias, I am not taking up for Cubans on the island but for the U. S. democracy, which deserves better than one-sided counter-revolutionaries saturating every forum they can with biased Cuban propaganda, much of it from individuals with non-birth names.
No big deal, thanks.
And the game has STILL not been replayed in Cuba. The government is pretending it never happened. The boys in Parque Central are laughing their heads off.
I have a feeling the coaching staff is in a bit of trouble when it comes times to face the superiors…
After reviewing the play, it was definitely interference. I stand corrected.
“That’s not how I saw it.”
Seriously? Do you know anything about baseball? It’s not a contact sport and the rules of engagement – especially with the umpiring staff – are VERY specific.
Yoelkis Cespedes (the Cuban runner on 2nd) pushed Dylan Tice and knocked the ball out of his hand thus interfering with him throwing to first. That’s instantly an automatic out. No debate. Period.
The Cuban coaching staff get so out of control that the umpires had to be escorted from the outfield by security.
The fact this is the ONLY game in the entire series that’s completely censored by the Cuban government tells you exactly how embarrassed they are.
That’s not how I saw it. In any case, sporting events can bring about some fierce competitive fights. As an American, I was a big fan of a pretty famous tennis player from years ago, John McEnroe and as for baseball, Pete Rose was outstanding in not taking any garbage from umpires.
“… Whatever happened to Canadian Nice?…”
Canada was 100% in the right. The Cuban coaching staff were complete idiots in this situation. They were so embarrassing wrong that the incident is being completely censured in Cuba.
Why would you expect better? Do you remember the Cuban Tae Kwon Do competitor who attacked the referee in the 2008 Bejing Olympics because of what he felt was a bad call? See a pattern here?
Whatever happened to Canadian Nice?
Shocked at the poor sportsmanship of the Cuban player and coaches; I would expect better.