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Top Cuban baseball stars Marti, Gomez thrown out of squad

Ace pitcher Yadel Marti and star outfielder Yasser Gomez have been thrown out of Cuba’s top baseball squad for “a grave act of indiscipline,” likely ending their hopes of playing in next year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC).

The one-sentence announcement on Friday in Communist Party newspaper Granma offered no details on why Marti, picked to the all-tournament team at the 2006 WBC, and Gomez, a former Olympian, were released from Havana’s Industriales.

Two people close to the team said the action came after the pair was caught trying to defect to the US. The two people spoke on condition of anonymity and did not elaborate, fearing it could lead to problems with the Industriales.

Marti was 1-0 with two saves and a 0.00 ERA in 12-and-two-third innings during four games in the inaugural WBC, when Cuba finished second to Japan.

The right-hander joined Daisuke Matsuzaka and Chan Ho Park as the all-WBC pitchers. Marti and his teammates were welcomed home as heroes after the event, climbing aboard a convoy of green military jeeps and parading through Havana’s streets.

Marti talked publicly about how Cuba would seek revenge during next year’s WBC and he was expected to again be one of the national team’s stars in the tournament this spring. But Friday’s announcement virtually guarantees neither he nor Gomez will play baseball for Cuba again in any capacity.

The 29-year-old Marti began his career in Cuba’s top baseball league in 1999 with the Metropolitanos of Havana, the capital’s second-tier squad. He was a short, thin prospect who scouts thought did not have the physical stature to become a star, but his excellent control and craftiness on the mound helped him win a spot on the Industriales in 2002.

The 28-year-old Gomez is a left-hander who batted third slot in the Industriales’ lineup and hit .394 last year. He began playing in Cuba’s top league as a teenager and was part of the Olympic team at the Sydney Games in 2000, which took the silver medal. He was left off Cuba’s 2006 WBC squad.

Both Gomez and Marti failed to secure spots on the Cuban team that finished second at the Olympic Games in Beijing, absences that surprised many in baseball circles.
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