1995 Pan American Games

From BR Bullpen

The 1995 Pan American Games was a mismatch with Cuba winning as usual - their 7th straight Gold Medal in baseball in the Pan American Games. This time, no Cuban hurler had an ERA of 1 or higher and they had home town advantage as the games were held in Havana.

9-0 Cuba scored at least six runs each game. They got fine efforts from Osvaldo Fernandez (2-0, 0.00), Rolando Arrojo (2-0, 0.69), Orlando Hernandez (2-0, 0.00) and Elicer Montes de Oca (3-0, 0.00). Victor Mesa (.394) led with 16 RBI, Jose Estrada (.462) led in runs (14) and homers (2), Lourdes Gourriel (.464) had the best average and Omar Linares (.375) tied for the lead with four triples.

Other teams to make the finals round were Nicaragua (6-3 amd the silver medal), Puerto Rico (4-5 and a Bronze), Mexico (6-3), Panama (4-5) and Argentina (4-5).

Teams eliminated in the preliminary round were Guatemela (1-3), the USA (0-4), Brazil (1-3) and the Dutch Antilles (0-4). The US usually was much more competitive (having won a medal in all but one prior Pan American Games), but this time they did not send their national team, but instead the St. John's University baseball team, no match for the international powers.

Sources: 1996 Baseball Almanac, A History of Cuban Baseball by Peter Bjarkman