1992 Junior World Championship

The 1992 Junior World Championship was the only Junior World Championship held in Mexico (through 2007). Held from August 20 through September 2 in Monterrey, the Championship was won by Cuba, which bounced back from a 5th-place finish in 1991. The tourney featured one of the biggest names to appear in a Junior Championship as Alex Rodriguez played shortstop for the USA.

Cuba outscored their opponents 115-23 in going 12-0 but had no one among the leaders in average. Their top performer was Liván Hernández (then going by E.L. Hernández), who allowed only one hit and four walks in 12 scoreless innings in the round-robin, striking out 19 and going 2-0. He 6-hit the US in the Gold Medal game, whiffing seven, and driving in two runs. Elizardo Guillart (2-0, 0.00, 2 H, 2 BB, 15 K in 10 IP in the round-robin) also was dominant on the mound.

The US won Silver, going 9-4 with a 108-57 run differential as they lacked Cuba's pitching. They had a close 4-3 semifinal win over Mexico behind a complete game from future AAA hurler L.J. Yankosky (2-0, 2.79, 10 H, 11 BB in 19 IP). Catcher A.J. Hinch hit .538, second in the round-robin, and stole 10 bases. 3B Preston Wilson (.347, 11 R) and SS Alex Rodriguez (.264, .509 SLG, 15 R, 16 RBI) went on to productive major league careers. They were managed by Joe Ross.

Taiwan won Bronze with a 10-3 recordand a 89-25 run differential. Bon-Cheng Hong (0-1, 3 Sv, 0.00 in round-robin) and Fang-Hua Lee (3-0, 0.39, 20 K, 10 H in 18 IP in round-robin) led a fine staff that almost matched Cuba's.

The host Mexicans finished 4th at 9-4 with a 88-41 run differential. Gerardo Amaro hit .458 and slugged 1.083 in the round-robin, while Karim Garcia batted .457 with 14 RBI and a 1.000 slugging percentage in that phase.

South Korea was 8-4 (102 runs, 29 runs allowed), as were Venezuela (86 R, 53 RA) and Australia (8-4, 116 R, 56 RA). Glenn Reeves hit .485 for the Australians, In-soo Yoon hit .433 with 14 runs and 9 steals for South Korea and Jhon Trujillo was 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA for Venezuela.

Panama (6-6, 78 R, 77 RA) rounded out the teams that made it to the second round-robin phase. Ariel Garcia was 2-0 with a 0.43 ERA for Panama, walking 9 in 16 innings but striking out 22 and allowing just two hits.

Canada (5-4, 82 R, 32 RA), the Netherlands (5-4, 68, 59), Brazil (5-3, 49, 36) and Nicaragua (5-4, 63, 38) finished 9th through 12th. Canada's Terry Adams hit .520, third-best in the round-robin. Janco Van Elderen batted .444 for the Netherlands. Fabio Noboru was 3-0 with a save and a 0.32 ERA, allowing 7 hits in 22 innings for Brazil.

Guatemala (3-6, 46, 99) and Peru (3-6, 31, 75) tied for 13th. Getting one win apiece were Ecuador (1-7, 16, 103), Argentina (1-7, 38, 71), Honduras (1-6, 24, 68; Enrique Lopez hit .458) and Italy (1-6, 30, 108).

Costa Rica (0-8, 18, 103) and the Bahamas (0-8, 18, 112) tied for last. Reico Wood of the Bahamas batted .560 to lead the event and slugged .960, with 7 doubles in 25 at-bats.

Source: 1993 Baseball Almanac