GIANT CHANGE FOR PITCHER : CUBAN GOLD MEDALIST LEADS NEW LIFE IN SAN FRANCISCO.

Byline: Martha Irvine Associated Press 

Four years ago, pitcher Osvaldo Fernandez took home an Olympic gold medal that made him a hero in his native Cuba.

These days, a million-dollar salary has replaced his chance for a second medal. And his adoring public has been traded in for cooler San Francisco Giants fans who are watching him and his 5.82 ERA with wary eyes.

Despite the pressure, the 27-year-old right-hander is exactly where he wants to be.

``In Cuba, you don't feel that kind of pressure because you feel superior,'' says Fernandez, who posted a 22-0 record in international play before defecting at a game in Millington, Tenn., last year. He signed this year with the Giants and is 3-4 this season.

``Now I am at the next level - the ultimate level,'' he says in Spanish, humbly adding, ``I have a lot to learn.''

As his former teammates on the Cuban National Team take the field against Australia in Atlanta July 20, Fernandez and the Giants will be in the middle of a homestand against the Dodgers.

He says he'll watch the games on TV with no regrets.

``The Olympics are a beautiful thing - so many sports, so many teams,'' Fernandez says. ``But I already have a medal, so it's time for someone else.''

Playing for the Cuban National Team is the dream of many boys in Cuba, where baseball remains the national pastime. Young boys, often barefoot, can be found playing pickup games just about anywhere. And when equipment is in short supply, they use broomsticks or a piece of pipe for bats and a wad of tape or even a doll's head for a ball.

``There, they play a bit more for love,'' Fernandez says.

Here, Cuban players note, baseball must share the spotlight with sports such as basketball and football. And it is often more about profits than hometown pride, they say.

``It's a business,'' says Oakland Athletics pitcher Ariel Prieto, another Cuban import and a good friend of Fernandez. ``But I play it because I love it. If I won the Lotto tomorrow, I would still play baseball.''

Lately, however, major league baseball has been tough on Cuban pitchers.

The injury-prone Rene Arocha - who became the first Cuban National Team member to defect, in 1991 - is recovering from elbow surgery and is out for the season with the St. Louis Cardinals. Prieto, a starter for the Oakland Athletics, is on that team's disabled list after a 2-3 start and a 6.37 ERA this season. And, after signing him to a four-year $4.5 million contract, the Florida Marlins have sent Livan Hernandez to gain some experience in the minors.

Still, pitchers - more than Cuban players at any other position - continue to flow into the United States.

Fernandez jokes that more pitchers leave Cuba because they're smarter. But there appears to be another reason.

``(The Cuban team's) pitching staff seems to rotate and change every two to three years,'' says Michael Fiore, general manager of USA Baseball, the organization that oversees the U.S. Olympic team. ``(Pitchers) know that they have such a short window on the national team. So if they want to capitalize, they have to leave.''

For Fernandez, the sacrifice has totaled far more than an Olympic medal or his fans in Cuba - most of whom have no access to major league games.

While he has achieved his dream of pitching in the big leagues, his parents, wife and young daughter, both named Elizabeth, remain in Cuba.

It was a difficult decision to leave them, he says. But it was actually his daughter's birth nearly two years ago - and the fact that he could not afford to care for her and his aging mother - that inspired him to defect.

``That was the final factor,'' says Fernandez, who was making 200 pesos a month, or about $5, as a Cuban player. He now has a three-year, $3.9 million contract with the Giants.