I guess there’s some kind of justice in me waxing poetic about watching the Cuban national team play, almost declaring them winners of the gold medal but then seeing them stink up the joint the second time around.

Actually, I think this game is best summed up by the old Korean man who sat behind me. He and his friend snuck from the $10 to the the $25 seats early in the game. Kim Dong-joo hit a bases clearing double to knock in Lee Yeong-gyu and Lee Seung-yeop and the guy cheered.

Korea went on to score at least two runs in each of the next five innings. At the end of the third he’d slipped off his flip-flops and put his bare feet on the seat next to me. Following the fourth he ordered a beer from one of the poor kids carrying a half-keg on their backs in the 85 degree/80-percent humidity heat, only to cancel the order after the kid had poured it. His buddy decided he didn’t want one.

At the end of the fifth the man started yelling at Cuba’s DH, Alfredo Despaigne as he ran off the field after warming up with the RF. “Hey,” he yelled with the score at 9-0, “Why don’t you make it a game? I don’t want to go home early you punk.”

All in Korean of course.

Unfortunately for most of us the game had no mercy rule in place and the entire nine innings were played, clocking in at just under four hours. After the seventh inning, in which Korea extended it’s lead to 15-1 the man started yelling, “You fuckers! Don’t you know how to play baseball?” (Laughter) “What the hell is wrong with you? Are you Cuba?”

Again in Korean. There was a lot of Korean spoken at the Cubans, mostly from kids asking for balls. The ones that could asked in English: “Hey! Hey you! Ball! Ball!”

All in all things were pretty good natured, but it’s not an exaggeration to say that Cuba looked like shit. I guess if I had to pick an MVP it’d be Jung Gun-woo, who was 2 for 3 with a HR and a double. But five Koreans had multiple hit games and the only starter without a hit was Lee Tek-gun. Ko Yoeng-min also homered for Korea.

Starter Bong Jung-gun looked great, striking out seven over four innings. Late addition Yun Seok-min, who will be used either as a spot starter or middle reliever, gave up a run over two innings. Sidearmer Jung Dae-hyun, who I sometime identify as Oh Sung-hwan (sorry), Kwan Hyuk and Han Ki-joo closed it down over the last three innings.

The starter for Cuba was 37-year-old Adiel Palma. I can’t imagine Palma will be Cuba’s second starter, and the two relievers that followed him, who I can only identify as Mastenez and Sanchez, are not on Cuba’s Beijing roster. This wasn’t discovered until after the game, and the Korean brass were reportedly not happy (link in Korean).

Bong’s solid game leaves manager Kim with quite a quandary as to who the starter of game one (versus the U.S. on Aug. 13) will be. He has three excellent lefties in Kim Kwang-hyun, Ryu Hyun-jin and Bong. Plus he has Song Sung-jun, who looked great against the Dutch. My guess is he goes with the guy none of the U.S. batters have faced, which would be Kim Kwang-hyun, who in my opinion is the best of the four anyway.

It might also be safe to say the Cuban team has trouble with lefties. The team didn’t get a run off Bong, Ryu, Kim or Kwan. It did touch Jang Won-sam for a couple of runs, but he’s not in the same class as the first three I mentioned.

There was a little bad news for the Korean team, as  it’s starting catcher Jin Gap-yeong went out with an apparent leg injury. It’s not believed to be serious, but he’s expected to miss some practice time.

As impressive as Korea was in this game, Cuba was terrible. I’d be wary of trying to glean much from the second game, but I think it’s fair to say both teams will make a run at a medal. I’d give Cuba a 35% chance at the gold, which is probably about what I’d give Japan. I’d give Korea a 20% chance, which is probably what I’d give the U.S. Canada around 10-15%.

Here’s a video recap of the game. Click the “300K” box below the photo.