By Jim Fryar
Globe Sports Editor
The rosters are nearly compete. Flights are arranged for all but the final few players.
The USA Baseball Tournament of Stars arrives in Joplin in nine days.
There's certainly a bottom-line goal already in mind for the USA Baseball officials - beating Cuba.
Ray Darwin, who has been arranging the details long distance from Cary, N.C., took a few hours Saturday to catch his breath and reintroduce himself to his family. Darwin even had time to mow the grass.
USA Baseball officials will begin arriving in Joplin this week to finalize local preparations. Darwin is director of baseball operations for the USA organization.
One bonus this year will be the location of a premier showcase. The Perfect Game Nationals will begin Friday at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.
That gives the USA coaching staff an opportunity to begin scouting players early, since many of the Perfect Game invitees also will be involved in the Tournament of Stars.
"We're going to see a ton of kids who are coming to Joplin," Darwin said. "It kind of starts the evaluation process a couple of days early."
The Perfect Game showcase also will give USA staffers an opportunity to see players who haven't responded to initial invitations to the Tournament of Stars.
With a handful of roster positions open, two or three of those players could still wind up in the TOS at Joe Becker Stadium.
The USA Baseball Tournament of Stars begins on June 20 with three games. The opener matches the Babe Ruth all-stars against RBI, the Reviving Baseball in the Inner Cities program sponsored by Major League Baseball.
The format remains the same for the week-long Tournament of Stars. Seven national baseball organizations provide all-star teams and USA Baseball selects a "Stars" team, which will make up two four-pool units. Teams will play five games in a span of six days, culminating with the medal round June 25.
The Tournament of Stars also will serve as the evaluation process for selection a junior national team (players age 18-under) to compete in the IBAF World Tournament in Cuba.
"It's a sweet chance we have in front of us," Darwin said of the summer-long process. "It's not going to be easy, winning in Cuba against Cuba. It would be a huge, huge achievement, but it's something I feel we can do."
Cuba won both the youth (16-under) world title and the Pan American junior title last summer, beating USA teams in each final.
"We have some young players (veterans of those teams) who are fairly hungry specifically to beat Cuba," Darwin said. "I don't know what will happen in Joplin (during the team selection process), but that hunger doesn't hurt."
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Jim Fryar: USA Baseball tournament coming together just fine
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