THE 1987 PAN AMERICAN GAMES : Baseball : U.S., Cuba Gain Gold Medal Game

Pitcher Jim Abbott said when the Pan American Games began that if the U.S. baseball team didn’t win a medal here and automatically qualify for the 1988 Olympic Games, he and his teammates might be deported.

With more than a little help from University of Georgia relief pitcher Cris Carpenter and Texas A&M; third baseman Scott Livingstone, who hit for the cycle and drove in five runs, Abbott made sure that didn’t happen Friday night at Bush Stadium in a 7-6 semifinal victory over Canada.

After Canada rallied to tie, 5-5, in the third inning, Abbott, a University of Michigan sophomore who was born without fingers on his right hand, entered the game and limited the Canadians to 3 hits and 1 unearned run in 4 innings as he won his second game of the tournament.

Assured of either the gold or silver medal, the United States (8-0) has earned a berth in the eight-team tournament next year at Seoul, South Korea.

It also has earned the dubious honor of playing today for the championship against Cuba (7-1) in a rematch virtually everyone wanted to see after the United States’ thrilling 6-4 victory last Saturday.

The United States has finished second in the Pan American Games five times to the Cubans, who have won the tournament six of the seven times they have entered.

“We came here to spoil the party, and we almost did that,” Canadian Coach John Haar said.

But that semifinal was anti-climactic after Friday’s first game, which Cuba won, 6-5, over Puerto Rico on a leadoff home run by second baseman Antonio Pacheco in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Cuba was behind, 5-1, after five innings before rallying, tying with two runs in the eighth after Puerto Rican right fielder Eddie Ahorrio lost a fly ball in the sun and dropped it. It would have been the third out.

Tempers flared at the close of that inning when Cuban shortstop Luis Ulacia, believing he had been thrown out on the previous pitch, grounded to second base and spiked Puerto Rican first baseman Efrain Garcia.

Garcia limped after Ulacia, soon to be joined by eight other Puerto Rican players. That brought the Cuban team out of the dugout. It took five minutes for order to be restored by the umpires, who ejected Ulacia, but they were able to prevent punches from being thrown.

The police should have had such an easy time after the game.

When the Cubans went into the Puerto Rican dugout to shake hands, several spectators, believed to be anti-Castro demonstrators, began shouting at the Cubans. There were conflicting reports about whether Puerto Rican fans also were shouting at the Cubans.

“Dirty players, dirty players,” was the chant spectators sitting nearby said they heard.

“I said they were dirty ballplayers and Communists,” said one of the demonstrators, Leopold Rey, a Miami janitor who has been in the United States for seven years after leaving Cuba. “A Cuban official asked me to repeat it, and I did.”

Taking offense, Cuba’s flamboyant center fielder, Victor Mesa, threw ice from a plastic cup at the demonstrators.

A Puerto Rican player shoved Mesa, who shoved him back and then charged toward the stands. As he was climbing over the rail, he was restrained by a policeman.

While the demonstrators continued to taunt the Cubans, three other players tried to climb over the rail and also were restrained.

Lt. Tom Carr of the Indianapolis Police Dept. said a Cuban photographer went into the stands and began fighting with one of the demonstrators. Carr said a Cuban sportswriter may also have been involved.

That brought Manuel Gonzalez Guerra, president of the Cuban Olympic Committee, into the fray, proving sprightly for his 73 years as he ran from one side of the stands behind home plate to the other.

He was red-faced, the veins bulging in his neck as he shouted orders to the police. They ignored him, arresting no one.

“No blood, no foul,” one policeman said.

Guerra was outraged.

“He was calling for them to be arrested, but the police were protecting them,” said Armando Giraldo, head of Cuban security. “They keep harassing us, they keep harassing us. This is bull . . . .”

This was the fourth confrontation between anti-Castro demonstrators and the Cubans since competition began Aug. 9, the second at a baseball game.

The head of Cuba’s delegation, Conrado Martinez, although concerned about security, said Friday night the Cubans would attend Sunday’s closing ceremony, but that was before he had an opportunity to speak with Guerra about the baseball game.

Carr tried to make light of the incident.

“Look at the game,” he said. “The benches cleared once. The situation was volatile to begin with. Tempers go. When you add alcohol to that, people have a tendency to go to a fight, not away from it.”

He said Indianapolis police and Indiana state police will provide security at today’s championship game between the United States and Cuba.