THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 22, 1996 TAG: 9608220544
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: TOM ROBINSON
LENGTH: 65 lines
All Mike Cuddyer has to say is, thank God for Pop Tarts.
No pastry was ever so tasty to the Chesapeake baseball star who, when in Cuba, just could not do as the Cubans do. So Cuddyer snubbed his daily rations of suspect soup and bloody chicken, and found sustenance elsewhere.
``I probably lost a good 8 pounds,'' says Cuddyer, a Great Bridge High School senior who played for Team USA in the recent Junior (ages 16-18) World Championships. ``All I had was rice and bread and Pop Tarts.''
Starched to the gills, guzzling bottled water, Cuddyer batted .367 in the seven-game, 12-team tournament and led the United States to the bronze medal. Combined with the United States' eight exhibition games in Florida, the numbers show Cuddyer as the clear offensive leader of the 18-man team assembled from 47 invited to try out in July.
A 6-foot-2, 190-pound (normally) infielder and pitcher, Cuddyer played every inning. Overall, he was second with a .467 average (28 for 60) and three home runs, but topped the team in at-bats, runs (18), hits and RBIs (19).
By the time he came home Monday, Cuddyer had been away 33 heady days, that had huge impact for perhaps the jewel of the area's baseball Class of '97, one of the strongest ever.
Cuddyer, Great Bridge's quarterback the last 2 1/2 seasons, decided football was too physically risky, especially with another dismal season forecast. Reluctantly, he says, he quit.
He had conversations with agents, including the hard-driving Scott Boras, the agent baseball executives most despise. And Cuddyer, 17, confirmed recruiting visits to Florida State and Notre Dame - ``a dream school,'' he says - while considering Clemson, Miami and others.
``I have three more (visits) to fill,'' he says, ``but I've been away a long time and I don't know if anybody else is interested.''
Just anybody who's anybody, that's all, including 30 major league baseball teams. Which means Cuddyer is about to enter one exciting, nervous, memorable school year.
``I want to live as normal a senior year as I possibly can,'' Cuddyer says. ``Later on, I'll think more and more about the pros and my draft status and everything.
``I kind of try not to think about it now. I know it's there, like, wow, I can get drafted. But if I do think like that, I could get complacent and I won't be able to play like I have been.''
That's yet to be a problem for a guy who admits he was taken aback by his starring role on Team USA.
``Yes, it surprised me that I led a team with All-Americans on it, people that got drafted (in the first round),'' Cuddyer says. ``It's weird being considered in that category of players.''
He'll get used to it.
But Cuddyer says he's appreciate routine American life more now that he's seen Communist Cuba, whose mountain-and-beach topography and living conditions were breathtaking for different reasons.
For instance, if he ever has to zipper his lips again during a shower in tainted water or sees another scraggly dog skinned on a street, it'll be too soon.
``They prepared us before we went in, but when we got there the reality hit us real rough,'' Cuddyer says. ``People begged us for everything. The USA officials gave us a good couple thousand Pop Tarts and Nutri-Grain bars and peanut butter crackers, but we gave away more than we ate. We kept enough that we weren't starving. But they were starving.''
So. What did you learn on your summer vacation? ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Mike Cuddyer hit .467 for Team USA. by CNB