Pan American Games

Capsules of yesterday's events.BOXING* Kenneth Friday was one of two Americans who came away victorious from last night's first day of boxing at the Pan American Games. Friday, a medic at Offut Air Force Base in Nebraska, stopped Eddy Saenz of Nicaragua at 2:18 of the second round in their 125-pound bout. Revea Springs of Cincinnati scored a unanimous decision over Hernan Mena of Colombia in the 156-pound class.TRACK* Cletus Clark won the first gold for the American men's track and field team in the 110-meter high hurdles.

* Capsules of yesterday's events on the fourth day of the Pan American Games:DIVINGMark Lenzi defied the boos and whistles of a raucous crowd as he stood on the board, then nailed the most nervous dive of his life to win a rare U.S. gold in the Pan American Games.Lenzi's victory gave the Americans a sweep of the diving events so far. The United States won the men's and women's 3-meter springboard, but Cuba still was far ahead in total medals.SOFTBALL* The U.S. men couldn't match Debbie Doom's second perfect game, this one against Nicaragua, but they did fine with a 7-2 victory over the Dominican Republic.

After watching the Pan American Games the last few days on television (ABC and TNT), these reflections:* One of these years -- hopefully, next year when Chuck Daly has the Olympians -- the coaches who handle our national teams will get around to fully understanding the international game. Gene Keady (Purdue) is just the latest in a long line of collegiate mentors who grossly neglect the perimeter game.Any suggestion that Uncle Sam's hoop representatives are hell-bent on atoning for the U.S. losing the gold medal to Brazil in '87 is hogwash.

HAVANA -- The Cubans are trying very hard to put their best foot forward during the Pan American Games. They are well aware that with hundreds of foreign journalists in town, any miscues will become instant news.Police presence in areas tourists frequent and around games sites is heavy, and crowd control is carefully orchestrated.There is no admission charge for Cubans who want to attend the competitions, and popular events like Saturday's U.S.-Cuba basketball game are drawing overflow crowds.

HAVANA -- The Cubans are trying very hard to put their best foot forward during the Pan American Games. They are well aware that with hundreds of foreign journalists in town, any miscues will become instant news.Police presence in areas tourists frequent and around games sites is heavy, and crowd control is carefully orchestrated.There is no admission charge for Cubans who want to attend the competitions, and popular events like Saturday's U.S.-Cuba basketball game are drawing overflow crowds.

HAVANA -- When the clock finally ran out on an 87-84 loss for the U.S. women's basketball team, also bringing to an end a 42-game winning streak that began nine years ago, Brazil's Maria Paula Da Silva did cartwheels across the court at the Sports City Coliseum.Brazil coach Maria Cardosa, who has suffered through defeat after defeat to the United States for 21 years -- 16 as a player, and five after moving to the head of the bench -- briefly considered joining her star guard before deciding to settle for the gymnastics that were being performed in her heart.

While his world was collapsing, Fidel Castro was spending five years and perhaps $140 million building 21 sports venues and improving 46 others and creating an athletes' village complete with everything except, it seems, toilet seats.While Communist-world trade disappeared and was not replaced, while diminished Soviet subsidies continued but with no assurance for the future, while all his cherished beliefs crashed in every other Socialist country, Mr. Castro prepared for the Pan American Games, Cuba's greatest international gathering in his 32 years of dictatorship.

HAVANA -- This is the toughest road trip in baseball. More tiring than a two-week hop on the West Coast. More nerve-wracking than a three-game series under the lights and the jets at Shea Stadium."

HAVANA -- Now that the opening ceremonies are over and the culture shock of negotiating a path through a socialist state is softened, the story line for the next 16 days of the 11th Pan American Games is the struggle of one Goliath against 38 Davids.As usual, the 31-sport competition pits the rich athletic giant, the United States, against 38 poorer, smaller, yet still proud nations of the Western Hemisphere. The games will receive an immediate sporting jolt this morning with the running of a men's and women's marathon and the first U.S.-Cuban contest in a men's basketball game.

HAVANA -- Play the worldwide Communist song "The Internationale," and Jose Rodriguez flashes back to the morning of Oct. 5, 1961.He was 11 then, a little scared about the trip he and his family were making to the United States. An uncle told him not to worry, for in America they would go to Coney Island and eat french fries out of paper cups. So, all that morning, Rodriguez thought of french fries, blocking out the journey from the provincial town of Sagualagrande to Jose Marti Airport, passing the hours sat huddled with his mother and father and sister.