1985 Intercontinental Cup

The 1985 Intercontinental Cup was the 7th Intercontinental Cup. It was held from August 8 through August 18 in Edmonton, AB, Canada.

Australia tied for 7th (last) at 1-6, only beating Canada. They were managed by Bill Thurston. Lionel Harris was named an All-Star outfielder, the lone All-Star from a sub-.500 team. Other players included David Buckthorpe, Jon Deeble and Grahame Cassel.

Canada went 2-5 to tie for fifth, beating the USA and Nicaragua. They were managed by Eric Mackenzie. Their club included Mike Gardiner and Harold Northcott.

Cuba was 6-1 under manager José Pineda and then beat Taiwan 8-7 and South Korea 4-3 in two squeakers to eke out the Gold. Their lone loss was by one run to Japan. They had four All-Stars in 1B Antonio Muñoz (.393, a tourney-best six doubles), 2B Antonio Pacheco (.379), 3B Omar Linares (.467) and OF Luis Casanova (.429, a tourney-high 6 homers and 14 RBI). Also playing well were Reinaldo Costa (1-0, 0.00) and tourney MVP José Alemán (3-0, 1.00). Alemán got both the semifinal and championship game wins. It was the first international event in which Cuba had Pacheco, Linares and Orestes Kindelan (2 for 6), a trio that would remain together through the 2001 Baseball World Cup.

Japan also was 6-1 in round one, under the guidance of Yoshinobu Suzuki, losing only to South Korea. They fell again to South Korea in the semifinals, 4-3, to fall to the Bronze Medal game, which they won 4-2 over Taiwan. Their lone All-Star was P Hiroshi Nagatomi (3-0). Tetsuro Hirose led the Cup with 3 steals.

Nicaragua tied for 7th at 1-6 under manager Skeeter Jarquin. They only beat Australia.

South Korea went 5-2 in round one, losing to Cuba and Taiwan by a combined 18-2 score. They beat Japan 4-3 in the semifinals but lost 4-3 to Cuba in the Gold Medal game. They were managed by Ki-young Sung. They had three All-Stars in C Sang-kug Kim, SS Jung-il Ryu and P Ki-bum Kim (3-0).

Chinese Taipei also was 5-2 in round one, with their losses coming to Japan and Cuba. They lost 8-7 to Cuba in the semifinals, then 4-2 to Japan in the Bronze Medal game to settle for 4th. They had the top offensive producer in Tai-Chuan Chiang, who led the event in average (.531), runs (12) and hits (17). They had two All-Stars, OF Yung-Tai Sung and DH Ming-Tsu Lu.