Supporting the South Florida Cuban community, neither Met shortstop Rey Ordonez nor third-base coach Cookie Rojas participated in last night’s game at Shea with the Reds.

Both left Shea before 4 p.m., joining the general strike suggested by Miami-area Cuban-Americans to protest how the U.S. government seized Elian Gonzalez early last Saturday.

Ordonez and Rojas are expected to return to their jobs tonight, when the Mets again host the Reds.

Cincinnati’s Alex Ochoa – whose parents came from Cuba in 1971 – did not join the protest and played left field for the Reds last night.

The 27-year-old Ordonez defected from Cuba in ’95. The 61-year-old Rojas left Cuba after graduating from La Luz High School in Havana. He began his U.S. baseball playing career in 1956 in West Palm Beach. He resides in Aventure, Fla., while Ordonez lives in the offseason in Parkland, Fla.

While Ordonez and Rojas both exited Shea before making comment yesterday, GM Steve Phillips and manager Bobby Valentine both backed their player and coach.

Phillips realized that this was an interesting precedent that was set at Shea last night as the Mets allowed a player and a coach to not participate with pay, because of political beliefs.

“That is something that crossed my mind,” said Phillips, who expects both in uniform tonight. “Spotted owls or whatever the next topic is, somebody could take a position on that.”

Phillips was not making light of the situation, but he does realize that this could create quite an issue if a player has strong views on something and wants to bring attention to it.

Last night, utilityman Melvin Mora took Ordonez’s spot in the lineup. Mora had harsh words for Cuban leader Fidel Castro before last night’s game. John Stearns coached third.

Phillips said the Mets would handle each case individually in the future. Phillips called major-league baseball’s offices yesterday to see what people there thought was the best course of action.

He also contacted four other teams. He wouldn’t say which ones, but you would think he would check in with the Yankees to see what their thinking was with Orlando Hernandez, who also honored the protest yesterday, though it was not his turn to pitch.

“This is something they have to do. I’m with them,” said Valentine, who told Ordonez and Rojas that he didn’t even need an explanation.

Valentine too realized that this situation causes the possibility of a player using the playing field for political purposes.

“Do I worry about it?” Valentine said. “No. Could it happen? Possibly.”

Ochoa said he supported Ordonez’ and Rojas’ view, but he decided not to sit out. He said he thought there could be repercussions over his decision.

“The good thing about this country is we have the freedom to do what we think is right,” said Ochoa, who also resides in South Florida.

Americans also have the freedom to take the fifth, which is what Reds manager Jack McKeon basically did before last night’s game. He didn’t want to talk about the situation.

“Cincinnati needs me right now and I decided to play,” said Ochoa, who added that nobody within his organization made him go out there.

The other situation that anyone at Shea could think of that was sort of drew parallels to last night’s was when Sandy Koufax didn’t participate in the World Series because he observed Yom Kippur. Former Tiger great Hank Greenberg also sat out on Yom Kippur.

“I’ve never been faced with a situation like this one,” Phillips said.

Phillips didn’t think that the Mets were supporting the same view as Ordonez and Rojas because they allowed the two to protest with pay.

“That’s not our intent certainly,” Phillips said. “I prefer to keep politics out of the game. I think we support Rey and Cookie. I think they are important to our organization. We support what they wanted to do in this situation. We don’t mean by our supporting their positions to take a political positions.”

According to Phillips, Rojas articulated that the two would understand if the Mets decided not to pay them last night. This would take the appearance of Met supporting a political position out of the equation.

“I didn’t think it was the way to go,” said Phillips, who met with the two at around 3:30 p.m. yesterday.

Mora had an interesting perspective on the situation, having spent a month in Cuba in 1990, while playing for the Venezuelan National team. He said the conditions were awful. People had to wait in long lines outside just to get groceries.

Mora had toothpaste and some people asked him for some, but instead of using to brush their teeth, “they ate it,” Mora said.

Mora doesn’t think highly of Castro.

“It’s sad having [someone] like that,” said Mora, who is from Venezuela.

He too didn’t like how the Elian situation was handled.

“Now, he’s going to need a psychologist,” Mora said of the 6-year-old.