Players Protest Elian Move

By Stephen M. Silverman

09/25/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

More than a dozen major league baseball players and coaches missed games on Tuesday in support of the one-day work stoppage by Cuban-Americans who protested the use of force in the Elian Gonzalez case. In Miami, where the Florida Marlins faced off with the San Francisco Giants, 10 Marlins (including six players) plus two Giant players and a coach did not suit up for the game. "We chose the spiritual well-being of our employees ahead of tonight's game," Marlins manager John Boles told The New York Times. Jose Canseco, one of the more prominent Cuban-Americans in baseball, sat out Tampa Bay's game against the Kansas City Royal last night, and in New York, Mets shortstop Rey Ordonez and third-base coach Cookie Rojas were given the day off.