www.stltoday.com By Dan O'Neill Of the Post-Dispatch 02/28/2003 09:23 PM

"Venezuela is still very close to my heart all the time," says Cardinals utility player Miguel Cairo. He lives with his wife and son in Bakersfield, Calif., but has family in Venezuela. (Chris Lee/P-D)

JUPITER, Fla. - Spring training camp can be an intoxicating place. Baseball increments that mature into a major-league season take place every day. One is easily lost in the surreal, sun-soaked surroundings.

But the troubled world from which some players come, the world in which their families and friends reside, is never entirely out of focus.

"I don't think about it when I'm playing baseball; you get away from it here," said nonroster catcher Alex Delgado, who is from Palmarejo, Venezuela. "But it is always on my mind when I'm not playing. I feel sorry for my family."

The Cardinals have four players in camp from Venezuela, including Delgado, nonroster catcher Luis Rodriguez, catcher Steve Torrealba and utility player Miguel Cairo.

Venezuela, a South American country of 24 million people, is in economic ruin after a two-month oil strike aimed at ousting President Hugo Chavez failed. Venezuela is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter and a major supplier for the United States. A coalition of labor and business leaders has been unable to unseat Chavez, who has the support of the armed forces.

Trying to lend support

Cairo went back to Venezuela to play winter ball but had to leave prematurely. Baseball players participated in a general strike on Dec. 2, and the league shut down altogether. Cairo returned to his residence in Bakersfield, Calif., on Dec. 15.

"There were a lot of robberies and everything taking place, a lot of bad stuff going on," Cairo said. "It's kind of bad for Venezuelan people. My family is doing fine right now, but it could be any moment that everything could get worse."

Delgado arrived at spring training a day late because he had problems getting a visa - but he was one of the lucky ones. Some players remain stuck in Venezuela, where immigration offices and consulates have intermittently closed.

"They were open for two days, so if you were a ballplayer, you could get a visa then, but they just closed again," Delgado said.

The families of Rodriguez and Delgado are dependent on the oil business for their livelihood. In response to the strikes and shutdowns that have crippled the Venezuelan economy, Chavez has fired about 16,000 of the 33,000 employees in the oil industry.

Rodriguez's family lives in Maracaibo, the oil capitol of the country. His father is a longtime employee of an oil company and had risen through the ranks to the position of supervisor. His salary is about $400,000 bolivar a month, slightly more than $250 dollars.

"He has worked his tail off his whole life to get that job," Rodriguez said. "A lot of people would like to have that job."

But with companies shutting down, with hostility rising between Chavez and his opposition, with commerce in a stranglehold, good jobs are relative. The oil company that Rodriguez's father works for has been closed since November.

Rodriguez, 31, never has drawn a big-league paycheck. He spent the last nine years playing for American League organizations, including the last four with the Red Sox. He lives in Tampa, Fla., year-round, and he supports his wife and two children on a minor-league salary that ranges from $30,000 to $40,000 a year.

Along with his parents, he has two brothers and two sisters in Maracaibo, including a younger brother trying to attend college. "I have to send money to them as much as I can," Rodriguez said. "If you send $200, it's almost what my dad makes in a month, so I do what I can. But I have to take care of things here, too. We have to eat, too, but I don't want to see my family in Venezuela suffer.

"My brother is going to college, but it's not like here, where you stay in (the dormitories) and just go to schools. He is at home with my parents and there is no work. So when I got my refund in taxes, I sent them a little bit to keep him in school."

"You can't get around"

Delgado also has two brothers and two sisters. His family also works in the oil industry, and they have been without work for more than two months. Not only are there no jobs, there is little oil available for purchase. At some gas stations, hundreds of drivers are in lines stretching for several miles. And some of those fortunate enough to get gas turn around and sell it at inflated prices.

"You can't get around," Delgado said. "You have to get in line for gas for two days. You see people sleeping in their cars to be in line to get gas. It's very hard. It's one of the richest oil companies in the world, and still we have to get in line to get gas. I feel sad when I see what is happening. For the players it's a little easier. Everyone knows you and lets you in to get gas. But for other people, it's really hard."

Delgado, 32, has played the bulk of his career in the minor leagues. He has a wife and a 5-year old daughter to support, but he sends money to his family back home whenever possible. The strikes have affected all businesses. Delgado and his brother own a sports bar in Palmarejo, but the tappers ran dry.

"At one point all the beer companies and everything were closed, we couldn't get any beer or liquor," he said. "It's everything. Groceries were out for a month. There are long lines to get any rice or sugar. It's really bad."

With the sound of mitts popping and bats cracking, with palm trees swaying in a warm coastal breeze, the Venezuelans can get lost in the business of baseball. But they fear the worst is yet to come in their home country. Earlier this week, the diplomatic embassies for Columbia and Spain were bombed. There have been clashes, robberies and shootings. While the economy continues to deteriorate, the danger appears to be escalating.

"People are afraid to go out on the streets, especially in Caracas," Delgado said. "I don't like to go to Caracas. It's dangerous to go there."

Cairo, 28, and his wife, Nicole, who is from California, have a 20-month old son. Cairo plans to return next winter to see his family and to raise spirits the best way he knows how - by playing ball.

"Venezuela is still very close to my heart all the time," said Cairo, who was second in the National League in pinch-hits (19) last season. "That's where I was born, that's where I grew up and that's where I became a baseball player.

"People know who I am when I go home to Venezuela. ... People see you play, especially the kids, and it makes them happy. You want to try to be a role model and give the younger kids something to follow."

www.vheadline.com Posted: Friday, February 28, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Rear Admiral Wolfgang Larrazabal Ugueto (91) has died of a heart attack.  He was an important figure in the transition between the dictatorship of General Marcos Perez Jimenez and the democratic era and was leader of the Junta between January 23 and November 14, 1958.

The Rear Admiral was born in Carupano (Sucre), studied in Maracaibo, entering the Naval School (1928-1932) ... commanding  several Navy ships until he was appointed commander of the Puerto Cabello Navy base.

• In 1947, Larrazabal became Navy Supreme Commander and Military Attache at the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington in 1979.

Commentators say it was the Admiral’s unpretentious style that made the transition to democracy smooth, despite several coup attempts against the Accion Democratica (AD) government.

El Universal was the first mainstream broadsheet to announce the Rear Admiral's death. It will be interesting to see government and opposition "body language" during the wake and funeral. 

www.heraldnet.com Published: Friday, February 28, 2003 By Kirby Arnold Herald Writer

PEORIA, Ariz. - Gil Meche isn't trying to come back any more. The way he sees it, he already is back.

It has been almost three years since Meche threw a meaningful pitch for the Seattle Mariners. He suffered through a period of shoulder pain and two surgeries that tested his confidence and threatened to peel away the label that said he was a can't-miss prospect.

Now, the 24-year-old right-hander is ready to resume the portion of his career that everyone expected from the beginning.

A winter retreat to Venezuela, where he played for Lara in the Venezuelan Winter League, brought back the zip on his fastball, the sharp break on his curveball and the biggest element of all: his confidence.

"My last two starts in Venezuela were probably just as good as anything I've done," Meche said. "My curveball was back, which I haven't had in a couple of years. Velocity-wise, I was pretty much the same as I was when I was called up."

Thursday brought another step in the process: Meche's first start of spring training in the Mariners' 6-5 victory over the San Diego Padres in their exhibition opener.

Meche's numbers were nothing to brag about - six hits and three runs in two innings - but truth in spring training performances lies underneath statistics.

"I thought he was great," pitching coach Bryan Price said. "He had a live fastball and I was extremely pleased with his changeup. He's showing the shape of four quality pitches and I couldn't care less about the numbers."

It's been a while since Meche came to spring training with this much to gain and feeling this good about his chances.

"There's nothing I'm worried about in camp," said Meche, who is competing for the one opening in the starting rotation with Jamey Wright, Ken Cloude and Rafael Soriano. "I feel strong. It's totally opposite of how I was at the beginning of last year. I feel like I could throw all day."

Price has noticed the difference and attributes it to one important element.

"It's because he's healthy," Price said.

Finally.

Meche progressed steadily through the Mariners' system - including a summer with the Everett AquaSox in 1997 - after they drafted him in the first round in 1996.

He made it to the majors in 1999, when the Mariners called him up in July and he went 8-4 in 15 starts. Meche started the 2000 season in the rotation and made another 15 starts, although they became more painful as time went on.

He went on the disabled list with a strained shoulder, but came back from that and pitched well. The pain returned, however, and he nursed himself back onto the mound for a late-August rehab appearance in Everett that sealed his fate.

He struggled to get through one inning, was shut down for the year and, after pain persisted during the winter, had surgery the following February to repair a partially frayed rotator cuff. Nine months later, amid continuing pain, he underwent exploratory surgery.

After another year of rehab, Meche pitched again last season at Class AA San Antonio and finally made progress. He finished just 4-6 with a 6.51 ERA, but steadily improved.

The Mariners sent him to winter ball in Venezuela late last year, and it all came together.

"The second start he made was the telltale point for me," said Dan Rohn, manager of the Class AAA Tacoma Rainiers who managed the Lara team. "When I saw his velocity come back and the sharpness on his breaking ball come back, I knew he was locked in."

The difference?

"He didn't hurt anymore," Rohn said.

Meche made five starts in Venezuela and went 2-1 with a 3.54 earned run average before he pulled a muscle while lifting weights. In that time, Meche realized he could pitch again without pain, something he battled through much of his rehab.

"Always before, he wasn't feeling that his injury was going away," Price said. "That's part of the rehabilitation process, but you have to have the confidence in the back of your mind that it is going to get better. My point to him was that it's going to get better or it's going to get worse, but it won't stay the same."

It has gotten better, and Meche is pitching now like the Mariners always believed he could.

He was knocked around a little Thursday, although two of the Padres' hits were swinging-bunt dribblers and one was a seeing-eye grounder that barely eluded shortstop Mark McLemore's glove.

"At this point in camp, I feel really good," Meche said. "I know my arm's only going to get stronger as we go on. I feel real good right now."

It has been almost three years since he's been able to say that.

www.miami.com Posted on Wed, Feb. 26, 2003 By GORDON WITTENMYER Saint Paul Pioneer Press

FORT MYERS, Fla. - Gasoline was so scarce that Johan Santana once traded shifts with relatives for eight days waiting in line at a gas station that had no gas but told customers the tanker truck was due any day.

The fuel was so valuable that once he decided to buy some on the black market and paid 30 times the government rate, he sped home as quickly as possible with his 195 liters out of fear he would be robbed, or worse.

"Just carrying gas in your car is dangerous," the Minnesota Twins pitcher said. "I knew I was in danger the whole time. But you have no choice."

That kind of danger became a way of life this winter for the major leaguers and minor leaguers who make their year-round homes in their native Venezuela - the South American political hot spot, where anti-government protesters have been killed and a nearly 3-month-old general strike by business owners threatens to destroy the economy.

"It's scary," said Twins second baseman Luis Rivas, whose hometown of LaGuaira is just outside the Venezuelan capital, and epicenter of unrest, Caracas. He now lives several hours away but has friends and family near the capital.

"We couldn't do nothing," Rivas said. "You never know what's going to happen_something bad. You have to be in your home."

Santana, Rivas and pitcher Juan Rincon, who lives in the oil-rich region around Lake Maracaibo, spent much of their offseasons as virtual shut-ins, avoiding the streets except as necessary to make discreet purchases of gasoline or to drive to Caracas for visa applications or to get to the airport to fly to Florida for spring training.

"It's a nightmare," Rivas said.

The cause of the upheaval is strong-arm President Hugo Chavez, an ally of Cuba's Fidel Castro who is trying to take greater control of what has been a representative government. As anger among the private business powers grew in the tropical nation made prosperous by oil, nationwide business shutdowns began - a one-day strike in November and then another on Dec. 2 that has yet to be lifted.

JOBLESS AND DESPERATE

The strike has put people across the country out of work, resulted in countless protests, most visibly_and deadly_in Caracas, and filled the streets of Venezuela with growing numbers of people, many with growing desperation.

"Every time you step out of your home, you're in danger," Rincon said. "People aren't working. A lot of people were fired from the petroleum plants. The malls have been closed for almost a month.

"People in the streets might think you have money. I'm lucky in my hometown (of 4 million people); not too many people know me."

Many banks are open for only a few hours daily and no longer operate a currency exchange program because of the wildly fluctuating value of the Bolivar, Venezuela's currency. The players protect their U.S. wages and bonuses with base accounts in this country, transferring funds to Venezuelan accounts as needed.

Other businesses also operate within strictly limited hours and are starting to suffer supply shortages, Rincon said. Makers of soft drinks, beer and other products have shut down.

And with the gas shortage, police cars are becoming an increasingly rare sight, along with other emergency vehicles such as ambulances.

"We've never been through this before," Rincon said.

And the Twins thought contraction was tough to survive.

"There was a lot of concern," Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire said. "You throw the baseball stuff out the window. It comes down to their lives. You have guys getting robbed for gas, people getting taken out of their cars and beaten."

As recently as 1991, economic reforms in Venezuela after oil prices dropped resulted in widespread protests, with hundreds killed. And the government endured two attempted coups in 1992.

But no political or economic crisis in the lifetimes of these early-20-something Twins has lasted this long or affected their lives so personally_and never has it canceled their winter baseball season.

BASEBALL SEASON CANCELED

With the start of the Dec. 2 strike came the end of the Venezuelan winter league. Santana was due to start pitching for his team Dec. 4. Rivas managed to play one game before the strike. And Rincon started early because he anticipated a possible strike but still got in only 11 innings before the shutdown.

Rincon, who had access to workout facilities and players to throw to near his home, has appeared strong in the early part of camp. Santana, who didn't throw all winter, brought a lingering hamstring pull from a late-December attempt at conditioning. Rivas didn't practice much and put on five to 10 pounds during the forced break.

"I'm glad I took some rest," Santana said. "But now I've got to start all over again."

Said Rivas: "You can tell the difference. It's going to be hard. But I got here early (by about a week) to start, and I don't think it's going to be a problem."

If anything, the biggest problem for the Venezuelan players, once Major League Baseball intervened to make special arrangements for teams to obtain their players' visas, also was the source of their biggest relief: Leaving behind their country_and their loved ones.

"I still worry," Santana said. "I'm glad I'm here, because I need to play. But I'm still worried because my family and friends are there. It's not easy to be here and think about friends there and the whole situation going on right now."

Rivas has a sister and grandmother living near Caracas.

"I wanted to leave, but sometimes I wanted to stay with my family," he said.

For whatever might have been lost in conditioning and practice time, the Twins were fortunate. None of their players from Venezuela, nor the handful of U.S. coaches and players sent there for winter league ball, was directly involved in any of the violence. No one was robbed or hurt.

And, so far, the harrowing offseason hasn't made them start house hunting in the United States.

"Still, I love my country," Santana said. "That's where I'm from. My family's all there. As long as I can, I'll stay there, and we'll see how it goes.

"Hopefully, everything will change, and it will get back to normal."

oklahoma.theinsiders.com By Joe Wallace Date: Feb 27, 2003

Villarroel scores a career-high 31 points against in the Sooners' 74-69 win over Missouri

NORMAN, Okla. - Someone didn't give Oklahoma guard Maria Villarroel the memo it was senior night.

Villarroel, a junior from Margarita, Venezuela, stole the show and scored a career-high 31 points as Oklahoma claimed sole possession of fifth place in the Big 12 after their 74-69 win over Missouri Wednesday night in Norman.

"It's fun to play on senior night. I told Maria to have a career night for me and she did," said senior Theresa Schuknecht.

Missouri came out smoking in the first half, hitting 10 three-pointers en route to taking a 42-38 halftime lead, but the Sooners hit 16 free throws in the second half and outscored the Tigers 36-27.

"It is definitely a huge win," said Oklahoma Head Coach Sherri Coale, whose Sooenrs improve to 8-6 in Big 12 play while Missouri falls to 7-7. "Probably my favorite part about this is the fact we never faltered during the first half when they could do no wrong."

Schuknecht, one of two senior starters for the Sooners, didn't have a bad night herself. The transfer from Arizona State grabbed 15 rebounds, scored 11 points and blocked five shots in her final home game as a Sooner.

Kate Scott, a little-used senior from Overland Park, Kan., started and played just one minute, and Stephanie Simon were also honored during senior night festivities. Simon, a forward from Clinton, had her senior season end last month when she sufferd an injury to her right knee.

"Every time a senior class graduates they take a big chunk of your identity with them," said Coale. "Sometimes seniors go and they take a bunch of points, assists and rebounds and sometimes they don't. They're always felt. They always take something with them when they go. These are three very, very special kids. Sometimes stars need a little glue in between them and these guys have been it."

Oklahoma will finish the regular season on the road with games at Oklahoma State (Saturday) and Texas (next Wednesday).

The Sooners are now 17-10 overall this season.