THE SEOUL GAMES / DAY 13 : Baseball : Celebration Was Tougher Than Game for Abbott

Jim Abbott was crushed.

His face was mashed into the dirt and his legs and arms were pinned by a mound of humanity.

“It was the greatest feeling in the world,” Abbott said.

When he got the final out of the United States’ 5-3 victory over Japan in Wednesday’s Olympic gold medal game, the entire U.S. squad rushed gleefully to the mound.

Abbott, who got a complete-game victory, wound up at the bottom of the pile.

“I’m sore all over,” he said, grinning ear to ear. “But it was worth it. I’d do it 1,000 times over . . . I loved it.”

Abbott, who was born without a right hand and hopes to become the first one-handed pitcher in the major leagues since the 1880s, struck out four, walked three and allowed seven hits.

It was the final time for baseball as an Olympic demonstration sport; America’s pastime becomes a fully recognized Olympic event at the Barcelona Games in 1992.

“I’m proud to be a part of all this,” said Tino Martinez, who homered twice and drove in four of the Americans’ runs.

“There are not many people who have an Olympic gold medal, including the 1984 American team.”

Tha year Japan beat a star-studded U.S. squad--including current major leaguers Mark McGwire, Will Clark and Cory Snyder--6-3 to win the gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympics.

The 1988 American team, essentially a collection of college all-stars, took a victory lap around the outfield at Chamshil Stadium, waving the American flag, after the United States won its first global title of any kind since the 1974 World Championships.

Abbott, still shaking hands with the Japanese players, did not take the lap because, he said with a laugh, “I looked around and everybody was already gone.”

But he rejoined his teammates on the stand to receive their gold medals.

“It was an incredible feeling when they hung the gold medal around my neck,” said Abbott, the former Michigan star selected by the California Angels as the eighth player taken in the draft last June.

“I think there’s something extra about winning a gold medal in a team sport, because we each can say to 19 other guys, ‘Hey, we did it.”’

Martinez, a first-round draft choice by the Seattle Mariners out of the University of Tampa, said he’s ready to start his pro career now, but there’s no way he would have missed the Olympic experience.

“I’m proud to put off my pro career,” he said. “We knew we had a chance to win the gold medal. And it would have been an awfully long plane ride home if we hadn’t.”

American coach Mark Marquess said he was on the verge of taking Abbott out when the pitcher was struggling in the sixth inning.