Little Havana Loves Its Little Livan

It may take others decades to win respect in Little Havana, but with his playoff pitching performance Livan Hernandez has become the pride of the neighborhood overnight.

While the Florida Marlins played the Cleveland Indians in the first World Series game Saturday night, jubilant Cuban fans who couldn’t score tickets rooted their team to a 7-4 victory in neighborhood cafeterias.

Usually they listen to games on the radio or watch TV from home. But not on a night when Hernandez, a 22-year-old Cuban rookie who emerged as the MVP of the N.L. championship series against Atlanta, was pitching.

“I wasn’t about to stay home today. I came out here to show my support for our team,” said Roberto Cruz, 53, who watched the game at Versailles, a popular Little Havana restaurant. “This is not just any game. Livan’s pitching and he’s going to make some more history.”

Hispanics make up about 60 percent of Dade County’s 2 million residents - the biggest percentage of them Cuban. Ten of the 25 Marlins are Hispanic, but only Hernandez and injured pitcher Alex Fernandez are of Cuban descent. And that’s all it takes for pride to stir in Little Havana.

When Hernandez led the team to victory against Greg Maddux and Atlanta in Game 5 of the N.L. championship series, he swelled fan expectations in South Florida and the Cuban community made him its hero.

Conine enjoys Orel surgery

Nearly five years later, Jeff Conine still has Orel Hershiser’s number.

Conine, one of only two Florida Marlins left from the franchise’s first team, ended Hershiser’s night in the fifth inning Saturday night with an RBI single.

The history between Conine and Hershiser goes back to the first game played in Pro Player Stadium, which on April 5, 1993, was called Joe Robbie. On that day, Conine went 4 for 4 with two runs scored and a stolen base as the Marlins beat Hershiser and the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-3.

And although Hershiser is now with Cleveland and hadn’t pitched in the N.L. since 1994, Conine treated baseball’s best postseason pitcher like always.

Conine, who had entered the game in the fifth inning as a defensive replacement at first base for Darren Daulton, lined a run-scoring hit to center to give the Marlins a 6-2 lead.

Conine is now 6 for 13 (.461) with a home run in his career against Hershiser, who tied a World Series record by giving up seven earned runs.

Souvenir in Uecker-land

They were the nosebleed seats - the cheap tickets to the sections of Pro Player Stadium that no one wanted during the regular season.

But the $20 obstructed-view seats turned out to the best in the house for Leo Rodriguez during Game 1.

Rodriguez wouldn’t have caught Charles Johnson’s fourth-inning home run to the upper deck of left field if he had been sitting any closer in Pro Player Stadium.

“I caught it. It came right at me and hit me in the chest,” said Rodriguez, a 43-year-old American Airline employee from Miami. “It kept growing and growing and growing like a beach ball.”

Rodriguez, his wife, Lilana, and their 13-year-old son, Frankie, had tried getting closer seats but were unsuccessful.

Less of the Wright stuff

Cleveland right-hander Jaret Wright, who won two division series games, will have a reduced role in the World Series.

Indians coach Mike Hargrove said Wright, who was bombed for five runs on six hits in three innings of Game 4 in the league championship series, will start Game 4 against the Florida Marlins, following Chad Ogea in Game 2 and Charles Nagy in Game 3.

“We designed it this way because we’re not sure how much Jaret has left in his tank,” Hargrove said. “This is the longest he’s pitched in his career, the most innings he’s pitched, the first time he’s pitched in the postseason.

“We feel this gives us the best possible people to pitch late in the series.”

Intern killed in hotel fall

John Seidler, a 27-year-old from Riverside, Calif., who was working as an intern for the baseball commissioner’s office, was killed Saturday when he fell from a 12th-floor hotel balcony in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. It was the second World Series-related death in two days.