WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: QUARTERFINALS - AUSTRALIA VS CUBA

March 14, 2023

Armando Johnson

Alfredo Despaigne

Tokyo Dome

Team Cuba

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. What's the condition, because you flew from Taiwan today.

ARMANDO JOHNSON: Yes, we had a couple hours resting by flying time, and also, tonight, we can have a good rest and we are ready for tomorrow.

Q. You swing very hard in practice. How is your condition?

ALFREDO DESPAIGNE: My condition is very good. I am enjoying playing baseball in the 2023 WBC, so what I would like to do is try to help my team and score runs as much as we can.

Q. You are the team captain, so tell us about your team's atmosphere.

ALFREDO DESPAIGNE: We are in a very good mood. Especially the last game against a tired Chinese Taipei, that was awesome. We are concentrating and today's workout day we have a lot of fun working out with Latin music, and it's going to continue from tomorrow.

Q. You are playing against Australia in the quarterfinals tomorrow. What's your impression for Team Australia in?

ARMANDO JOHNSON: My impression is that Team Australia is such a great team. They know how to play baseball. They have a nasty lefty and they have quality -- their pitcher is a quality pitcher.

But our lineup is so ready, and Despaigne, he's such a great captain to lift up our dugout. So we are ready to play tomorrow.

ALFREDO DESPAIGNE: The Australian team is a very good team. We learn a lot from what kind of play they have. The last time we faced against Australia, we won, but tomorrow, too, I would like to go for the em-I final in order to do it, let's win tomorrow.

Q. You've been playing in Japan for a long time and representing your country, Cuba, how do you feel about playing in your second home, Japan?

ALFREDO DESPAIGNE: I played here in Japan for nine years, and now I am representing my country. I'd like to get a win as a captain. I have a lot of depth, including many major leaguers, so I play together with them for the team.

Q. So from new on, this is going to be elimination games. What's the most important thing, Mr. Johnson?

ARMANDO JOHNSON: First of all, the most important thing is, once you get on the field there's a bunch of fans. In order to play solid baseball, we prepared well. Even after we got in Japan, we worked hard. We like the way the Japanese people prepare, especially their fundamentals, and that's how we would like to be in the future.

Tomorrow we play the quarterfinal, it is going to be a very fun game. We would like to advance and move forward and I would like to advance to the next stage, and I would like to show not only Japanese baseball fans but also the Cuban fans, that we play well. Our biggest goal is to get the win.

Q. Pool A for the WBC tournament is very nasty, and I have a question, when you look back at Pool A, is it something you -- how did you look back at Pool A, because that was like a five-way tiebreaker.

ARMANDO JOHNSON: If you are first two games, it was difficult. It's tough to play. The MLB organization, well, Team Cuba was divided in two groups the, the players from the Major League Baseball organization and the non-Major League Baseball organization, and many of them travel a lot and many of them got tired.

But the more time we spend together as a team, the team work is -- our team is being together, and we got used to it as one team and the previous one or two games, my third and fourth game in Pool A, we scored a lot,and that's something we want to do. The first two games, we were defeated by the opponent and it was a serious loss, but we cheered up by ourselves and we gathered as one team; that would lead us to two consecutive wins.

ALFREDO DESPAIGNE: Our first game in Pool A, that was even a surprise to me. The players coming from the Major League Baseball organization, there's a time difference, jet lag, and also we had spring training in the U.S. and we had some problems.

But anyway, no matter what the situation is, we know what we are aiming for and what we have to do just play hard and get the victory.

Q. This is going to be a besides baseball story. A while ago, Alfredo just mentioned to us, you had a workout day with a lot of Cuban Latin music. How did the Cuban Latin music help you?

ALFREDO DESPAIGNE: Well, as everybody recognize, not only the Cubans, but all the Latin people loves dance, loves music. We love dance and music and to party. The music makes me feel comfortable and makes me feel better. If we know the song, we sing together, and the more relaxed we could play better. Of courts, we have some other actives beside listening to music as well.