1995 Intercontinental Cup

From BR Bullpen

The 1995 Intercontinental Cup was the 12th Intercontinental Cup and the 7th in a row won by the Cuban national team. It was held in Havana from October 26 through November 9, 1995. Future major leaguers included Oswaldo Mairena, Luis Figueroa, Jose Contreras, Orlando Hernandez, Rolando Arrojo and Jorge Toca; others went on to play in the top leagues in Cuba, Japan and South Korea. See also 1995 Intercontinental Cup (Rosters)

Team Summaries[edit]

  • Flag of Brazil Brazil went 2-3 to tie for third in the six-team Pool A, with wins over Taiwan and Spain. They were outscored, 34-27. Top performers were Henrique Tamaki (0-1, 0.90), CF Thiago Ojima (.438/.444/.688, 5 RBI, 4 2B) and 1B-2B Ronaldo Ono (.444/.500/.778, 5 R). Rodolfo Puente was their manager.
  • Flag of Mexico Mexico was 1-4, beating only South Africa, to tie for last in Pool B. Sergio Robles was the skipper. They were outscored, 37-13. Their top offensive performer was 3B Jose Contreras (.471/.526/.647) as they hit .224/.283/.299 as a squad. Leon Heasequi (0--1, 2.16) was their only effective hurler with more than one appearance; the team ERA was 7.51.
  • Flag of Netherlands Netherlands was 2-3 under manager Boudewijn Maat, beating Spain and Brazil to tie for third in Pool A. They had a 40-33 run differential. CF Jeffrey Cranston (.591/.625/.773) led the tournament in average while LF Adonis Kemp (.417/.533/.583) was second in steals (5) and SS Evert-Jan 't Hoen (.273/.333/1.091) tied for second with three homers. Also hitting well was DH Edsel Martis (.353/.353/.706). The pitching was not as sharp as the hitting with Danny Wout (1-0, 0 R in 5 IP) and Rob Cordemans (1 R in 4 IP) standing out.
  • Flag of Nicaragua Nicaragua earned the Bronze. After a 4-1 start, they dropped all three semifinal games but beat South Korea 10-5 in the Bronze Medal game. Their manager was Julio Sanchez. They outscored opponents by a 53-42 edge. They had the tourney's Best Defensive Player, 2B Norman Cardoze (.306/.359/.639, 3 HR, 10 RBI), who also was their lone All-Star. 1B Nemesio Porras put up a .387/.412/.613 line and was second in the Cup with 11 RBI. Top moundsmen were Fredy Corea (1-0, 2.12) and Luis Miranda (2-0, 3.00).
  • Flag of Puerto Rico Puerto Rico was 3-2, finishing third in Pool B behind Japan and South Korea and placing fifth overall. They were under the reigns of Rogelio Negron. They scored 38 runs and gave up 35. They had several big boppers including LF Juan Rodriguez (.350/.409/.950, 9 RBI, a tourney-best four homers), CF Omar Hernández (.500/.600/.786) and 3B Jose Perez (.462/.533/.923). Jorge Ortiz (1-0, 3.38) and Rafael Rivera (1-0, 0.00) were their best starters.
  • Flag of South Korea South Korea went 4-1 in round one but 1-3 afterwards to place 4th under skipper Byung-woo Kim. They scored 63 runs and gave up 49. Top hitters were 3B Pil-sun Kang (.333/.429/.722), LF Byung-kyu Lee (.333/.463/.606, 9 R, 3 HR, a tourney-best 7 steals without getting caught once) and All-Star DH Hee-sung Mun (.345/.457/.828, 3 HR). Dong-jin Choi (1-0, 2.45) had the only ERA under 4.5 on a poorly-performing staff. Young-soo Kim (1-2, 4.50) finished second in the event with 25 strikeouts. The worst ERA was put up by Min-han Son (1-1, 7.53), who would go on to a very good career. Mun was the only All-Star from a team that did not win a Medal.
  • Flag of Spain Spain went 0-5, the only winless team, and they were outscored by a hefty 67-5 score. Juan Perez managed the team. The team batting line read .144/.229/.203 with the best OPSes coming from SS Javier Zabalza (.214/.267/.429) and RF Miguel Zoroza (.273/.333/.273). The porous staff had a 15.31 ERA and a WHIP of 2.88. Only Raúl Arrondo (4.76) had an ERA under 9.
  • Flag of Chinese Taipei Chinese Taipei went 2-3 with wins over the Netherlands and Spain, though they lost by only one run to both Nicaragua and Brazil as well. They tied for third in Pool A under manager Sheng-Ming Hsu. They outscored opponents, 29-20. The most effective hitters were C Chao-Hui Wu (.333/.375/.733, 8 RBI) and 2B Cheng-Lung Yeh (.400/.571/.600, 5 R). Chun-Liang Wu (1-0, 1.35) and Shih-Chih Tsai (1-0, 0.00) led the staff.

All-Star Team[edit]

Sources[edit]

Intercontinental Cup

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