CUBA NAMES MANAGER FOR WBC TEAM

Just a month before the second World Baseball Classic opens with pool play in four cities, Cuba has finally announced who will manage their team. Higinio Velez, who managed Cuba to the championship game against Japan in the first WBC in 2006, will be the team’s skipper in March when they are joined in Mexico City by South Africa, Australia and Pool B host Mexico.


Shortly after Cuba was defeated by Japan in the WBC title game three years ago, Velez was replaced by Rey Anglada, manager of the Cuban National Series’ Industriales Leones. Other men considered to run Cuba’s WBC team were Antonio Pacheco, who led Cuba to a silver medal in the Beijing Olympics, and former Cuban National Team manager Jorge Fuentes. In the end, the nod went to Velez, who has been serving both as president of the Cuban Baseball Federation and commissioner of the National Series the past year and a half.

Cuba will take on South Africa on March 8 at Foro Sol in Mexico City in the opening game of Pool B play. The MLB Network will televise all WBC games from Mexico City.