THE 1984 OLYMPIC GAMES 224 For one day, Norberto Oberburger, a 24-year-old weightlifter from Merano, Italy, and Joe Fargis, a 36-year-old equestrian from Petersburg, Virginia, had something in common: Each played a part in Olympic history. Ober- burger lifted 860 pounds in the heavyweight division to give Italy its first weightlifting gold medal in 60 years, and Fargis had two faultless rides aboard Touch of Class, an eleven-year-old mare, to lead the United States to its first gold medal ever in team show jumping. The American baseball team had everything going for it: A brilliant coach BASEBALL (Southern Cal's Rod Dedeaux, who had sent such players as Tom Seaver, Fred Lynn, Bill Lee and Ron Fairly to the major leagues), a brilliant squad (including thirteen men who had been selected in the first round of the major-league draft), a brilliant record (four straight Olympic victories by a combined score of 35 to 4) and more than a hundred years of rich tradition. But in the championship game in the demonstration sport, Japan led the U.S. 3-1, in the bottom of the seventh, two out, the bases loaded with Americans. Reiichi Matsunaga, the Japanese coach, turned to his bullpen. He called on Yukio Yoshida, who had pitched nine full innings the previous night, to face Shane Mack, the number one draft choice of the San Diego Padres. A hometown hero from UCLA, Mack had already hit a home run for the only American run. Most of the 55,235 fans in Dodger Stadium- only a thousand fans fewer than the largest crowd in the park's history- wanted to see Shane come back and hit another. Instead, the fans in Los Angeles found out how the fans in Mudville felt. Relief pitcher Kazutomo Miyamoto loaded the bases in the 7th inning, but Japan got out of Mighty Mack struck out, and Japan went on to a 6-3 victory and the the jam and went on to defeat the U.S. in the baseball final, 6-3. gold medal. Left fielder Shane Mack strikes out.