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Reports from Belo Interactive contributors at the Olympics in Sydney, AustraliaCheering on the underdogs: The heart of the Olympic ideal
09/29/2000 By Matt Zaffino / KGW-TV, Portland, Oregon Olympic Gold was struck for the quintessential American game Wednesday night at Sydney Baseball Stadium.
What a night to be at the ballpark.
The outcome was never really in question after Mike Neill of the Seattle Mariners farm team, the Tacoma Rainiers, hit an early home run.
Tigard High School's Mike Kinkade played solid defense at third base as he has through the whole tourney. The legendary Tommy Lasorda called him one of the team leaders.
Lasorda also called the team a bunch of babies, a reference to their young age -- especially compared to the only other team to EVER have won an Olympic Gold medal in baseball, the Cubans.
I felt lucky to be there, even luckier to be able to interview the likes of Lasorda and Kinkade.
It was a beautiful night for baseball. Even the giant Australian moths were attracted to the game -- more for the lights than the sport, of course.
The moths, in turn, attracted big Australian bats, which helped themselves to an Olympic moth feast.
But the biggest bats of the night were in the hands of a largely no-name bunch of minor league players who pulled off a major league victory that none of the experts they could.
And that is the beauty of Olympic sport.
Upsets happen. Underdogs prevail.
And for a little while Wednesday night, Australia felt very, very American.
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Track star 
1996
swimming gold medalist Ryan Berube 
