By Dani
Baseball is one of the most popular sports in Cuba. It is also Cuba National Sport. This amazing game was officially played for the first time in Cuba on December 27th 1874, in Palmar de Junco Stadium, Matanzas. Ever since then, baseball has been a part of Cuban culture.
Nowadays, Cuba has a strong national baseball league; it is “La Serie Nacional de Béisbol”. This amateur league was opened by Fidel Castro on 1961 and, it has been the most important national sporting event in Cuba. This league currently has 17 teams divided in two zones, which represent each Cuban province (Havana City has two teams).
These teams are:
The most successful Cuban team has been Industriales. This team has won the league 12 times, 4 more times than its strongest challenger, Santiago de Cuba, which has won 8 times. The other winner teams have been: Villa Clara (4), Pinar del Rio (3), Sancti Spiritus (1) and Holguin (1). There are also other teams which had won the league, but these team actually don´t play and they won´t play anymore.
Cuban baseball league has also had excellent managers like Jorge Fuentes, who won the first place 5 times (4 times with the old Vegueros and 1 time with Pinar del Rio). Other successful managers have been Higinio Velez and Ramon Carneado, who have won 4 times with Santiago de Cuba and Industriales respectively; Pedro Jova (3 times with Villa Clara), Rey Vicente Anglada (3 times with Industriales) and Antonio Pacheco (3 times with Santiago de Cuba).
As you can see Cuba has a strong and competitive league which has made many great baseball players. These players have played important roles in the international baseball history and we will talk about them in the near future.
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