THE CUBAN BONDS
His name is Alexei Bell and he is one big-time showboat.
He can also hit the you-know-what out of a baseball, which he did in a six-run eighth inning of Cuba’s 10-2 semifinal rout of the United States on Friday.
It was after Bell swung when things got interesting.
His three-run homer was a bomb to center, but Alexei wasn’t just satisfied with smacking one out. He posed like a cover girl, gazing into Cuba’s dugout after flipping his bat away.
He stood at home plate, watched the ball clear the fence and then jogged around the bases with his right arm held high.
If this is a major league game, whomever follows Alexei in the order gets a nice 90-mph fastball in his back. But the U.S. responded in a different manner, continuing to throw strikes that Cuban batters continued to pound.
I expected more from a manager such as Davey Johnson, but then again I’m not sure he was awake when all this happened.
