Olympics: Athlete who really plays for love of sport

By CHRIS RATTUE

SYDNEY - Omar Linares could be one of the richest sportsmen on the planet.

Instead, he talks about going back to work as a PE teacher when his baseball career is over.

The star of the Cuban side who have won the two Olympic gold medals since baseball was introduced at Barcelona in 1992, could have earned a fortune in the United States. Instead, he remains in Cuba, where professional sport has been banned for 41 years.

After the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, in which Linares hit three home runs against Japan in the final, he was reported to have fielded offers of up to $40 million from American clubs.

But to take up such an offer means a huge sacrifice because of the politics involved. To follow the Cubans who have gone to the US would mean Linares having to cut ties with his country.

It would also mean leaving behind the adoring fans in baseball-mad Cuba, where the sport dominates conversation in all walks of life.

"I told them [the agents] not to waste their time - that I didn't even know what millions of dollars were," the 32-year-old Linares was reported as saying. "I asked them if they knew the price of 11 million people who have called you El Nino [The Boy] ever since you stepped on to the ball field."

There have been inevitable rumours that some Cubans will use the Olympics to "defect" to the American leagues.

But Linares was adamant that was not in his game plan, as he rested in the training dug-out yesterday at the Blacktown Olympic Centre, where half the preliminary games and the women's softball will be played. "I'm proud to play for the people in my country.

"There are 11 million people in Cuba always waiting and expecting, watching, and I want to play for them."

On the subject of the Cubans who have gone to America, he says: "It's a decision they make, to leave their country which has given them everything in baseball ... but I hope everything goes well for them."

Through an interpreter, he says "no, no" when asked if he would ever follow. His coach, Servio Borge, is more severe, describing the luring of Cubans to the US as "piracy."

Until the Fidel Castro revolution 41 years ago, Cubans played in American leagues. But now a player such as Linares works the way other athletes around the world did before open professionalism arrived at the Olympics.

A PE teacher in name, he is given plenty of time to train and play.

The Cuban situation means baseball represents some of the old-style Olympic battles that occurred, especially when East and West were separated by walls and suspicion.

But there has been contact between the Cubans and Americans in recent times. Last year, Cuba split a series with the Baltimore Orioles, the first time a professional side had gone to Cuba since 1959.

That result was evidence that the Cubans are as good, if not better, than many of the multimillion-dollar American franchises.

Baseball opened up the Olympics to professionals after the Atlanta Games.

One of the great rivalries at these Olympics could have been between the Cubans and the stars from the American and Japanese major leagues.

But because the Olympics clash with those leagues, the likes of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa will not be in Sydney.

Instead, the squad will comprise a group of players whose names are even less familiar than the Cubans.

It is undoubtedly a disappointment to the Cubans not to be given a chance to beat America's best, although Linares and coach Servio Borge still claimed at times yesterday that "the best are coming."

Linares did relent, however.

"That is a problem for the Americans," he says. "I'm not sure why they aren't coming. Maybe it is because of the steroids they use. If that is not the reason, then it is one of the reasons."

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