Two very important baseball games are being played tonight and tomorrow night in the Estadio Nacional in far-off Panama City, Panama.
Team Canada, already guaranteed a place in the quarterfinals of the Americas Olympic Baseball Qualifying Tournament with a 2-0 record, can secure first place and a favourable route to the finals with wins over Mexico tonight (at 8:00) and Cuba tomorrow (at 3:00). Mexico lost 5-4 to Cuba in 13 innings yesterday, so hopefully the big Canadian bats will feast on a tired bullpen.
Team Canada won their first game of the tournament, beating Puerto Rico 8-5 on a three-run outburst in the 11th inning, including a homer by Todd Betts of Scarborough (and the Yakult Swallows of Japan's Central League). Minnesota's Justin Morneau hit two home runs in the win. The Puerto Ricans went on to beat Mexico 5-1.
Canada's subsequent game against the Bahamas was forfeited as the Bahamian team had visa problems.
Canada's roster, which you can see in this story from Baseball America, is loaded with big hitters, including Betts, Morneau, Devil Rays catcher Pierre-Luc (Pete) LaForest, and Jeff Guiel of the Angels. Perennial fan favourite Stubby Clapp is also on the team, and a number of former major leaguers including Jason Dickson, Mike Johnson (who will start tonight), Rob Butler, and Rob Ducey.
Two Jays prospects, New Haven 1B Matt Logan and New Haven reliever John Ogiltree, are on the club (Alexis Rios was on the Puerto Rican team they beat on Friday). Canada's manager? It's none other than the man, the myth, the legend... Ernie Whitt.
As I said above, Mike Johnson (4-3, 3.72 for AAA Fresno in 2003) is expected to start against Mexico tonight, and Reds prospect Brett Gray (5-3, 3.94, 14/57 BB/K for AA Chattanooga in 2003) is likely to go against Cuba. Canada will apparently face Rigo Beltran (5-4, 2.71 for AAA Ottawa in 2003 and a former Cardinal, Met and Rockie) tonight and Cuban lefthander Ediel Polma on Wednesday. Polma could pose a problem as most of Canada's lineup is lefty hitters.
Only the top two finishers will qualify for the Athens Olympics (how stupid is that, that only two teams from the Americas will play at the Olympics?) so Canada must make the final in order to go; finishing first would mean that they would avoid the first-place team in the other pool (likely to be the powerful U.S. team) until the final.
Baseball Canada's site is at www.baseball.ca.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20031104031025999