International Baseball Game Is Saturday at Dodger Stadium

Pepperdine’s Dan Melendez, a former St. Bernard High standout, will join top amateur players from 28 countries for Saturday night’s International Baseball Assn. (IBA) World All-Star game at Dodger Stadium.

While traditional baseball powers such as Cuba, Japan and the United States will be well represented, players will also come from such countries as Peru, Aruba, Czechoslovakia, Sweden and the Soviet Union.

The teams will be divided into squads representing the West (the Americas) and the East (the rest of the world). The East holds the series lead, having won last year’s inaugural IBA game, 11-8, at Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium.

Florida State’s Chris Roberts--whose 15th-inning double lifted the United States over the Dominican Republic in the bronze-medal game in last week’s Pan American Games--and pitcher David Tuttle of UC Santa Clara, are the other U.S. players expected to participate.

Cuba, which breezed through the recent Pan Am tournament without a loss, will send third baseman Omar Linares, left fielder Orestes Kindelan and second baseman Antonio Pacheco to the game. All three would be considered major league prospects if Cubans were allowed to play professional baseball in the United States.

The East will be led by Japan’s Shin-Ichi Sato. An outfielder, Sato went four for four with two runs scored and three runs batted in to win most valuable player honors in last year’s IBA game.

Cuba’s Sergio Borges Suarez will coach the West team.

Hsian-Mu Wu of Taiwan will coach the East team.