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Cuban Baseball’s History
The official beginning of Cuban baseball took place on December 27th, 1874 with the confrontation between Havana and Matanzas teams in the legendary Palmar del Junco.
Nevertheless, the first Cuban baseball championship didn’t take place up to December 29th, 1878 with a first game between Havana and Almendares teams.
It was played in Havana’s territory, in Linea Street, exactly where it is today the America Arias Maternal Hospital.
It is important to say that the baseball practice antecedents go back 1865.
In this date people began to play in Matanzas as in the Havana’s Vedado and some years later Nemesio Guillo, José Dolores Amieva and his two brother returned to Cuba coming from the United States and they introduced the baseball technique and they helped to spread it.
They created a team in Matanzas and they began to play in barren lands, which seemed herdsmen since it was a ground without fences.
Then it was built in Pueblo Nuevo, Matanzas, the historical stadium Palmar del Junco.
As a trivia it is necessary to highlight that on October 1st 1868 the practice of baseball in Cuba in suppressed by the announcement dictated by the General Captain of the Island Francisco of Lersundi, since it was considered an anti-Spanish practice and a plot against the Colony.
The Cuban Baseball and its Particularities
Today, this sport is developed through its National Series, the most important sport event that is developed in Cuba.
It began in 1962 and takes place every year. The teams that participate represent each one of the provincies of the country: Pinar del Rio, La Isla, Industrial, Artemisa, Mayabeque, Matanzas, Villa Clara, Cienfuegos, Sancti Spíritus, Ciego de Ávila, Camagüey, Las Tunas, Holguín, Santiago de Cuba, Granma and Guantánamo.
These teams play national games that end up reaching great expectation in both television and live on the part of the population. Industrial team is the maximum winner with 12 victories in these games.
The National Teams in the Cuban Baseball
The national teams in Cuban baseball are constantly nurtured with the best athletes by the National Series.
Cuba has been able to have along its sport history a powerful team in this sport and its qualitative development owes itself partly to baseball been the national sport.
In order to participate in international events the players are selected through the national championship and they conform the selection that will represent the nation.
Among the more important international results it is the silver medal in the first World Classic of Baseball, the three times olympic champions, among other laurels.
Important players have excelled, such as: José Antonio, Braudilio Vinnent, Miguel Cuebas, Agustín Marquetti, Antonio Muñoz, Omar Linares, Antonio Pacheco, Orestes Kindelan, Pedro Luis Knot and Norge Luis Vera among others.
