BEIJING -- Once upon a time they were baseball's Big Red Machine, unbeaten for 10 years in international play and winners of more than 150 consecutive tournament games.
But Cuba's national team has fallen on hard times.
Last fall it lost to the Netherlands in the preliminary round of the World Cup, marking the first time a European team had beaten Cuba in Cup play. Then five days later, Cuba lost to the U.S. in the gold medal game for the first time in its history.
The reaction in Cuba was swift and predictable. Manager Ray Vicente Anglada was fired.
"It's like in the major leagues," said Sigfredo Barros, the dean of Cuban sportswriters. "If you lose, they say 'Hey, you're a good guy. You have a nice family.' But you're no longer the manager."
The man in the hot seat now is former national team second baseman Antonio Pacheco, Team Cuba's third manager in two years. And if anyone can bridge the gap between Cuba's glory years of the past and the current rebuilding brought on by age and defections, it's the personable Pacheco, captain of the island's first two Olympic gold medalists and manager of three of the last four Cuban League champions.
