Swing Completo – Translating Cuba

Havana’s Industriales Baseball Team, From Success to Exodus

Of the 37 players who made up the dazzling Cuban team of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, 25 have left the country

The Industriales of Havana have won the National Baseball Series 12 times / Cubadebate

14ymedio/Swing Completo, Havana, 13 December 2024 — The Industriales of Havana of the 1995-1996 campaign is one of the teams most remembered by their own and strangers.

14ymedio/Swing Completo, Havana, December 13, 2024 — The Industriales of Havana of the 1995-1996 campaign is one of the teams most remembered by their own and strangers. With a team of great new players, it broke the hegemony of the Azucareros of Villa Clara, who were looking for their fourth consecutive National Baseball Series. Today, however, it is no more than the epitome of the situation of national sport on the Island, bled by migration.

One of the players of the “Blues,” Jesús Ametller, recounted on Facebook the current whereabouts of his former teammates. Of the 37 members, 25 left the country in search of better opportunities, despite the fact that they had years of good baseball health on the Island. In 1996, for example, Team Cuba repeated the Olympic gold – undefeated – at the Atlanta Games. In fact, Cuba won three gold and two silver medals in 16 years, from 1992 to 2008.

Eight of the 13 members of the pitching staff currently reside abroad: Orlando Hernández, Ernesto Noris, Luis Alberto González, Agustín Marquetti Jr., Ángel Díaz, Pablo Miguel Abreu, Leonardo Tamayo and Juan Carlos Llanes; while Jorge Fumero alternates stays between Italy and Cuba. Only Lázaro Valle, René Espín, Juan Rafael Despaigne and Osnel Blas continue reading

Bocourt live on the Island.

Out of the nine starters of the Industriales team that won the National Baseball Series 28 years ago, only Germán Mesa remains in Cuba

As for the catchers, they all emigrated: Ricardo Miranda, Francisco Santiesteban, Bárbaro Cañizares and Michel Hernández.

Regarding the players who ran the bases, six out of eight also looked for better opportunities abroad: Roberto Colina, Juan Padilla, Luis Pestana, Lázaro Vargas, Vladimir Hernández and Ametller himself, who published the list, while Germán Mesa and Alexander Malleta stayed in the country.

Javier Méndez, Carlos Tabares and William Ortega, all of them outfielders, also emigrated; the only one who stayed in the country was Juan Francisco Cuéllar.

Finally, as for the management, Pedro Medina – considered by many one of the best catchers of all time in Cuban baseball, chosen among the 100 best athletes of the twentieth century in the country – resides on the Island, along with Eulalio Linares, Enrique Rojas and Fidel Ramírez. His colleagues Ángel Leocadio Díaz and Reinaldo Batista decided to leave.

On the list are two members who have passed away: one of the coaches, Juan Gómez, and the outfielder Orbe Luis Rodríguez.

Swing Completo says that out of the nine starters on the Industriales team that won the National Baseball Series 28 years ago, only Germán Mesa remains in Cuba.

About 1,100 athletes have fled in the last decade. Most of them, 635, have been baseball players, according to a count by the official weekly Trabajadores, in January 2022. Since then, the numbers have continued to grow. The exile also includes coaches from various disciplines, many of whom have already delivered results with other nations, as happened in Paris 2024, where 50 trainers in 30 countries harvested 28 medals with their athletes, triple those achieved by the Cuban delegation (barely nine).

Translated by Regina Anavy
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A Baseball Team in Havana is Denounced for Abandoning Its Coach ‘For Being a Woman’

Baseball players of the Marianao team / Cubadebate

14ymedio/Swing Completo, Havana, 10 December 10, 2024 — The more than twenty players of the Marianao team from Havana abandoned their coach, Annie Fonseca, by failing to show up for the game they had this Monday. The club, which is in last place in the Provincial Series, forfeited the game to Plaza by “not being present” in an act that the Facebook page Por La Goma described as “detestable” and “macho.”

According to the same publication, the team has a “miserable” attitude by “questioning the ability of a coach just because she is a woman.” It also highlighted Jordan William Bustamante, Daniel Yanes, Pedro Remolar, Yankiel Hernández, Kevin González, Rayco Víctores, Daniel Escalona and Dayron Miranda (injured), the only players from Marianao who did show up for the game.

Por La Goma reported that in the series there are teams like El Cotorro, which is also lagging behind but does not question its coaches. “You can have problems and situations, you can have difficulties and differences, but the pledged word cannot be ’prostituted’ with abandonment; that is not for good men, that is not correct.”

The position of the players generated other reactions. The women’s magazine Alas Tensas interpreted the athletes’ decision “as an act of rejection towards the female figure in command, which has ignited the debate on gender equality in Cuban sport.”

Annie Fonseca won the national softball championship in Guantánamo (1998) with Havana / Facebook/Fidel Ramírez Coll

Annie Fonseca, who was chosen this year to take charge of Marianao in the 64th edition of the Provincial Series of Havana, is not an ’improvised’ coach. As a player, she won the national softball championship in Guantánamo (1998) with Havana. She is currently in the fifth year of a degree in Physical Culture, Sport and Recreation at the University of Sports.

Last year, when Marianao became the runner-up, Fonseca was a bench coach. In November, in a chat with Swing Completo, she accepted that running the club would be a challenge because sexist beliefs still persist. However, she took on the challenge. “I firmly believe that women also have the right to earn respect within the field of baseball. We’re here to build and help the sport that we all love,” she declared.

“I was born a baseball player, and I’m a woman,” the coach said. “I can’t be more woman. Everything is in the person.” Fonseca has relied on elite players such as Dayron Miranda and Jordan William Bustamante.

This Tuesday Por La Goma considered that the sports authorities of Havana should “reformulate their strategies, allowing women who have talent and dedication to represent themselves.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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One Step Away From Its Worst Record in History, Cuba Drops a Step in the World Baseball Rankings

Cuba is facing a decade with more defeats than victories in international tournaments

Cuba finished with one win and four losses in the last Premier 12 / ’Jit’

14ymedio/Swing Completo, Havana, 28 November 2024 — Team Cuba will close 2024 close to its worst position in history in the international baseball rankings. The island dropped one step in the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) ranking, published this Wednesday, and is in tenth position, just one step away from its worst record – 11th place – in 2021.

The Cuban team generated the fewest points during 2024 within the top 10 of the world ranking. The team could only add 401 points, far from the second worst team in the year, the Dominican Republic, with 760. For the classification, what was achieved in the lower categories is also taken into account, where there were also no great results.

The Cuban team generated the fewest points during 2024 within the top 10 of the world ranking.

Poor performance has also caused Team Cuba to fall even at the regional level, although in 2012 it was the world leader in the rankings. Today it is ranked sixth in the Americas, behind Venezuela, which is now third in the world, with 4,846 points.

Also on the list are Mexico (4,729), the United States (4,691) and Panama (3,334). Japan is firmly at the top of the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, despite losing to Taiwan in the final of the last continue reading

Premier 12. It has 6,866 points, well ahead of the Taiwanese, who are in second place, with 5,489.

Cuba’s poor results in international tournaments have been a constant for a decade. Its record in 2013, after playing in the World Classic, was the last time the team had more wins than losses in a year, winning four games and losing only two.

During the 2015 Premier 12, the Cubans qualified in the second round, where they fell to South Korea. Thus they closed that year with a 3-3 record. Two years later, in 2017, they again played in the World Classic. In that tournament, they reached the second phase of the event, where they fell by a thrashing (14-1) to the Netherlands. With that defeat, their record was 2-4. That has been, so far, the worst performance for Cuba in that tournament; in 2006 they were finalists.

During the 2015 Premier 12, the Cubans qualified in the second round, where they fell to South Korea.

In 2019, in the second edition of the Premier 12, the island was eliminated for the first time in the group stage. It finished in tenth place overall, with one win and two losses. That same year, the team competed in the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru. The competition, which Team Cuba dominated throughout history – with 12 titles, 10 of them consecutive, from 1971 to 2007 – ended with three losses in four matches and the team remained in third-to-last place. At the end of the year, its record was 2-5.

Two years later, the 2021 Pre-Olympic tournament was held, on the way to the Tokyo Games, another event in which the Cuban teams had shown superiority, with three gold medals out of a possible five. Only on a couple of occasions did they have to settle for silver. However, those hopes of recalling old glories did not come true, since they did not get the ticket. That year they won one game and lost two.

The year 2023 was bittersweet. On the one hand, the team reached the semifinals of the World Classic and qualified for the second round of the championship with a 2-2 record. In the quarterfinals, they defeated Australia in a tight match (4-3), but then lost to the United States in the semifinals (14-2). Despite the positive scenario, the record in the tournament was three wins and three losses. That same year, they played in the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games and were eliminated in the first phase. They were only able to win one game out of four to end the year with four wins and six losses.

Finally, in 2024, they played five games, all within the framework of the Premier 12, with one victory and four defeats, leaving a total record of 13 games won and 24 lost in more than a decade.

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Three Cuban Baseball Players Escape Two Hours Before a Game in Mexico

The Cuban baseball team arriving in Mexico, including the three escaped baseball players / Francys Romero

14ymedio/Swing Completo, Havana, 7 November 2024 — Cuba arrived this Wednesday at the Mexican stadium Coloso del Pacífico, in Tepic (Nayarit), without three of its players. Two hours before the baseball team boarded the bus that transported them, Branlis Rodríguez, Over Cremet and Alexis Varona “were absent from the group,” reported journalist Francys Romero.

A few weeks ago, a committee of the US Major Leagues said that the Mexican stadium met all the requirements to hold international professional competitions, reported Swing Completo.

Accompanied by the ghost of the escapees, Cuba suffered a 9-1 defeat against Mexico in the exhibition game this Wednesday. The 18 players were escorted by three coaches and three other team members, who did not try to prevent the escapes. At the head of the delegation was Ángel Ortega, manager of Granma in the last National Series, accompanied by coaches Guillermo Carmona from Industriales, Abeicy Pantoja from Las Tunas, and Jorge Hierrezuelo, Jesús Bosmenier and Carlos Marín.

The Cuban Baseball Federation decided to form an alternative team, because the national team is in Taiwan for the Premier 12 tournament, which will be held between November 13 and 18 in Japan, Taiwan and Mexico. continue reading

Start of the game between Mexico and Cuba at the Coloso del Pacífico stadium / Facebook / Por la Goma

The athletes arrived in Mexico last Tuesday and had to have their luggage ready a day later before leaving the hotel, to return to the Island as soon as the match against the Aztecs ended.

The receiver Alexis Varona was part of the team that Ortega summoned. In that same position were called William Saavedra, Yunier Mendoza, Osvaldo Abreu, Yunier Rondón and Jeison Martínez.

Last May, on Facebook, Por la Goma highlighted Varona as one of the “best second bases” of the National Series. “He has defended more than one position, even in the outfield. He is a very useful baseball player in any team.”

The outfielder Luis Cremet “had a luxurious year” in the last National Series, according to the All In 1 Deportes portal. “He is a natural slugger, one of the few that the province of Guantánamo has,” it said. The player from Guantanamo was accompanied in the team that arrived in Tepic by Frederich Cepeda, Dennis Laza, Yaser Julio González and Ariel Hechavarría.

Branlis Rodríguez was among the five pitchers called up by Ortega. The others were Dani Betancourt, Randy Cueto, Armando Dueñas and Alberto Pablo Civil. The left-hander was an important piece of the Pinar del Río team that lost the National Series against Las Tunas.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Specialized Media See Cuban Baseball As ‘A Showcase of Isolated Players’

The Cuban national team trains at the Taichung Intercontinental Stadium / JIT

14ymedio/Swing Completo, Havana, 4 November 2024 — The absence of players like Guillermo Avilés and Yasmany Tomás has generated suspicions about the offensive and pitching capacity of the Cuban national team. At the gates of the Premier 12 tournament, which will be held between November 13 and 18 in Japan, Taiwan and Mexico, coach Armando Johnson has had to go out to defend the exclusion of Avilés and the stay of Yadir Drake and Ariel Martínez.

“The squad looks slow, desperately slow, and the long-range batters stand out for their absence,” said the specialized media Pelota Cubana USA. The same space described the pitching as “implausible,” upon registering throws below 90 miles per hour.

“In modern baseball where breaking-ball pitches exceed that speed, the Cuban team presents itself, ironically, with a straight that in another time would have been worthy of a young pitcher,” warned journalist Yordano Carmona.

Despite the criticism of specialized media, Johnson gives a vote of confidence to Rafael Viñales and reaffirms the decision to leave out Guillermo Avilés, the left-hander who hit above .400 in the preparation stops in Ulsan, South Korea. In addition, Avilés had presented an acceptable level with the Alazanes team in the National Series. continue reading

“At first we talked about 14 pitchers, but what we have seen in the course of these stops is that Viñales was very good, as was Guillermo Avilés,” argued the national coach. “Viñales is more versatile than Avilés, and that’s why we decided on him,” he added.

Raidel Martínez with the national team before the Premier12 tournament / Jit

In the midst of the controversy, the arrival of the best closer of Japanese professional baseball, Raidel Martínez, to the national team has brought hope to Armando Johnson.

Another questioned absence is that of Yasmany Tomás. The Facebook space of DPorto Sports LLC commented that this baseball player, with experience in the Major Leagues of the United States, one of those “discarded” by the Cuban Baseball Federation, is “the top trailer pitcher in the Pacific League of Mexico.”

The absence of Tomás, according to the same space, “is due more to a personal issue with someone in management than to sports questions.”

For Pelota Cubana USA, baseball on the Island “has gone from being a spectacle of great figures to a showcase of isolated players who desperately seek to leave the country before getting lost in mediocrity.”
italic pelota

Cuba’s expectations in the Premier 12 are reserved. The team of coaches shaped by Armando Johnson and Pedro Luis Lazo said in Seoul that the goal is to “advance to the Super Round, and then try to reach the podium.”

Yordano Carmona says that “the decline of Cuban baseball is not an isolated phenomenon; it is a reflection of the blow that Cuban society has suffered in the last 10-15 years.” The journalist regrets that the National Series became “a survival tournament,” in which “talented young people escape in search of contracts abroad, and veterans without professional options fill the teams.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Medalist Javier Sotomayor Doubts the Future of Cuban Athletics

El campeón olímpico cubano en Barcelona 1992 y plata en Sídney 2000, Javier Sotomayor. Instagram/@245sotomayor

14ymedio, Swing Completo, Havana, 14 October 2024 — “The facilities are in poor condition; there is a lack of equipment, specialized shoes, shortage of gyms and no competitions.” The Cuban Olympic champion in Barcelona 1992 and silver in Sydney 2000, Javier Sotomayor, expressed himself forcefully this Saturday in the WhatsApp group Athletics Without Borders about the current crisis of athletics on the Island.

“The future of Cuban athletics for me is in doubt,” said the athlete, who lives between Guadalajara, Spain, where his son trains, and Havana, where he runs a bar, the 2.45, named after the world record he set in 1993 in high jump. “We have established athletes and young people with a lot of talent, as well as trained coaches, but the infrastructure is not adequate, most of all at the base,” he stressed.

Sotomayor also regretted that there is no infrastructure on the Island for the discipline in which he excelled. “For the practice of technique, it is necessary from an early age to make corrections. That’s why they reach the national pre-selection with almost incorrigible defects.”

In the past Olympic Games in Paris, Luis Enrique Zayas could not overcome the high jump score of 2.27 meters established as a requirement by the organizers for the qualifying phase. At the end of his participation, he continue reading

confessed that he had only had “ten weeks of training, the first even without being one hundred percent.”

Sotomayor also regretted that the Island does not have infrastructure for the discipline in which he excelled / Instagram / @245sotomayor

The exodus is another of the problems that afflict Cuban sport, and athletics is no exception. The crisis was revealed last year by the national athletics commissioner Rolando Charroo, after the failure at the XIX World Championship in Budapest.

On that occasion, the official regretted the lack of “runners capable of sustaining themselves in the elite tests such as the 400 and 800 meters and the 100, 110 and 400 with fences, in which we have had proven success.”

The terrible conditions for the preparation of athletes has forced several to emigrate. One of those was Roger Valentín Iribarne, who in 2021 asked for leave for “lack of motivation.” He found in the Benfica club of Portugal the conditions for his sports development, and last July he won the gold medal in the 110 meter hurdles in the Diamond League held in Silesia, Poland.

Reynier Mena, like Valentín Iribarne, took refuge in the Benfica club. In one year in Portugal he improved his numbers. In July 2022, in La Chaux de Fonds, this sprinter went down from the 10-second barrier in the 100 flat meters with a score of 9.99 seconds, and in the 200 meters he recorded 19.63 seconds.

In Paris, the podium in the long jump event was dominated by Cubans in exile. Jordan Díaz, who represents Spain, took the gold. The silver and bronze went to Pedro Pablo Pichardo (Portugal), with 17.84, and to Andy Díaz (Italy), with 17.64.

In the absence of figures, the Cuban authorities had to “reinsert” the jumper Juan Miguel Echevarría with a view to the Olympics in the French capital. However, the Olympic runner-up in Tokyo 2020 was left out of Paris for not having appeared in any competition that allowed him to achieve the minimum score required to attend the event.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Cuban Baseball Player From the Matanzas Team Who Traveled to Spain Without Bats Escapes

Baseball player Yoisnel Camejo disassociated himself from Cuban baseball after the failure of the Matanzas team in Spain / Facebook/Cuba Grand Slam

14ymedio/Swing Completo, Havana, 1 October 2024 — Yoisnel Camejo, a member of the Matanzas team, left the club’s training in Spain. The player, according to the Cuba Grand Slam Facebook page, “decided to stay on Spanish soil” after the failure and elimination of the team in the Catalan Cup.

It will be difficult for the Matanzas team to participate again in an international event. Camejo “took advantage of the opportunity and embarked on a new path through Spain although it may not be linked to baseball,” said Pelota Cubana journalist Miguel Rodríguez.

Camejo did not show up with the rest of his teammates to board the 6:00 a.m. flight from Spain that was returning the team to the Island, thereby “breaking any link with the Cuban athletic movement.” The athlete chose to “start a new process in his life,” the magazine Swing Completo added.

During the tournament, in which Matanzas recorded two defeats and one victory, Camejo participated in two games and struck out in one of them. The athlete participated in six National Series with the Cocodrilos team. In 50 games he had 82 times at bat, 31 hits, two doubles, five triples, a couple of home runs and 18 assisted runs. continue reading

The Catalan Cup confirmed that Cuban baseball “is bogged down and has lost the gift of victory,” said Por la Goma after Matanzas’ failure. The team’s result showed the lack of foresight on the part of the Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB) in the processing of visas for the players and the team’s lack of preparation.

The former player for Industriales is now in the US / Facebook / Francys Romero

Pelota Cubana reported this Monday that in addition to the fact that the players of Matanzas traveled without training, they also did so “without a complete team and, what is more alarming, without bats.”

The club had to “borrow” the bats. “How can such an improvisation be explained in an international competition? The answer is simple: the Cuban player, like the rest of the citizens on the Island, has been forced to survive instead of fully dedicating himself to his profession,” stressed the same specialized media.

Cuban baseball players seem more concerned about what they can take back home, the same specialized media highlighted. The reason many players did not carry bats is because “if they load down their luggage with bats, the weight they can bring back is much lower,” the publication pointed out, referring to the weight of luggage allowed by the airlines.

This Monday, the arrival in the United States of baseball player Óscar Valdés, who was absent from the national team’s lineup for the Premier 12, was also confirmed. So far it is unknown if there is interest from a major league club in the player from Industriales.

In his career in the National Series and the Elite League, Valdés has a batting average of .282 with 99 doubles, 11 triples, 32 home runs, 303 RBI runs and 304 scored.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Four Major League Players Resign From the Official Cuban Team

Julio Robaina, Omar Estévez, Narbe Cruz and Erisbel Arruebarrena were among the 11 participants who emigrated
The Cuban representation in the Little League World Series was left out of the competition

The integration of Cuban players with experience in the Major Leagues is in doubt for the Premier 12 tournament / Jit

14ymedio/Swing Completo, Havana, 21 August 2024 — Of the 11 exiled players who had agreed to play for the Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB) in the international Premier 12 competition, four recently “declined” despite the fact that they had committed to the Island team. The refusal of Julio Robaina, Omar Estévez, Narbe Cruz and Erisbel Arruebarrena complicates the plan of the Federation, which last January announced that it would form a competitive squad with Cuban members from teams of the United States Major Leagues.

Initially, the institution contacted emigrated players who compete in 40 teams but barely convinced a dozen, among them the habanero Narbe Yadán Cruz. The athlete left the Island in 2019 and a year later got a contract with the Houston Astros for 218,000 dollars. He is currently part of the Asheville Minor Leagues team, and, despite committing to the Cuban national team, his interest is focused on returning to the major league circuit rather than representing the Island.

Estévez, for his part, faces a bad streak in the sport. His performance has been declining since his contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers ended in 2022. The matancero [player from Matanzas Cuba] barely added seven games since then – five of them with the Mexican team of the Tomateros de Culiacán and two with the Puerto Rican club Leones de Ponce. continue reading

The Santa Clara U-12 team was eliminated from the Little League World Series / Jit

Robaina is also going through a difficult time after suffering an injury that has kept him away from the game, in addition to the fact that this year his contract with the Houston team ends, which will allow him to re-sign or look for another team to play with. This could be the reason why he gave up defending Cuba in the Premier 12, an event that brings together a dozen of the best national teams of the World Baseball and Softball Confederation, said Pelota Cubana. His future could be in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League, but nothing has been finalized yet, the same media added.

Finally, Arruebarrena is in full recovery from an obligatory surgery due to a knee injury, so he was taken out. This athlete from Cienfuegos played for the FCB as part of Team Asere in the 2023 World Classic, where the Cubans lost.

The obstacles to forming a national team do not end there. The national baseball commissioner Juan Reinaldo Pérez Pardo admitted on Tuesday that the participation of the Major League players “is not entirely safe” and will depend on “the authorization of the clubs, if they declare them in extreme fatigue due to the number of games played during the season. It will also depend on the medical insurance that is not covered on this occasion by the World Confederation of Baseball and Softball,” according to Juventud Rebelde.

Also among the dubious participants is the baseball player Elián Leyva, who may not attend the contest due to his contract with the Leones del Escogido (Dominican Republic) for the winter. “It’s most likely that he won’t be able to participate,” Pelota Cubana said.

On September 10 Cuba must deliver a list of 60 players from among whom it will choose those who make up the national team to present themselves in the Premier 12. The emigrated players, however, seem insufficient. The FCB’s list also includes Alexei Ramírez, Yoan López, Yadir Drake, Roberto Baldoquín, Lázaro Armenteros, and Darién Núñez. According to the sports authorities, the name of Yusnier Padrón is also mentioned.

In other international competitions, the Island has not managed to achieve a good status either. Represented by the Santa Clara team, Cuba was eliminated this Monday by Mexico 6 to 4 in the Little League World Series, held in the American city of Williamsport (Pennsylvania) . “The relay pitching could not hold out,” said the official media Jit.

The Cuban team was invited by the organizers to play the tournament this year; however, next year it will have to compete with other representatives to be able to participate in the event.

This Tuesday the World Baseball and Softball Confederation announced the qualifying groups for the upcoming World Classic of 2026, which will take place in the United States, Japan and Puerto Rico. Cuba is part of Group A, where Puerto Rico – the venue for this group – Canada, Panama and another team to be defined are also included.

Group B was left with the United States, Mexico, Italy, Great Britain and another team to be defined. They will play at the Minute Maid Park stadium in Houston, Texas. Group C, for its part, is made up of Japan, Australia, Korea, Czech Republic and another country, while D is made up of Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Israel, the Netherlands and one last participant.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Spain Invites Cuban Players To Join Its Team in the Baseball Classic

The Federation of Professional Baseball Players of Cuba launched a call for Cubans who want to play in the World Classic with Spain / Fepcub

14ymedio/Swing Completo, Havana, 1 September 2024 — Spain, looking for a ticket to the 2026 Baseball Classic, opened the doors to Cuban players who wish to join its team. The invitation was released this Saturday through the Federation of Professional Baseball Players of Cuba (Fepcube) and “is open to any eligible athlete,” says the Instagram post.

Cubans with the opportunity to play for Spain will be those who meet any of these requirements: “have a Spanish passport, have a Spanish father or mother, be born in Spain or permanently resident in the European country.”

They must also fill out the corresponding application before September 16, the day on which Spain will present a list of 50 athletes, from which it will define the national team that will compete for one of the four tickets available to participate in the Baseball Classic, which will be played simultaneously in the United States, Japan and Puerto Rico. Cuba is located in group A, along with Puerto Rico, Canada, Panama and one more rival to be defined.

The Spanish national team has played two qualifying phases, the first in 2012, which gave it access to the 2013 World Classic, and later in 2016, where it was eliminated. continue reading

The Cuban team that won a children’s tournament in the Dominican Republic / Jit

The promotion of Fepcube generated controversy among users on social networks, who questioned the organization for moving away from its initial objective, which is the formation of a team of exiles and not to contribute to the selection of another country. The organization has not offered a position on this point.

It is not the first time that Spain has incorporated Cuban players into a national team. The current European champion team was formed in 2023 with athletes from the Island. The payroll included pitcher Pablo Guillén and catcher Omar Hernández, who ended up being the event’s leader in home runs and scored runs. Also on the team were pitchers Rogelio Armenteros and Carlos Sierra, fielder Frank Hernández and bench coach Néstor Pérez.

Meanwhile, on the Island, the official media Jit highlighted the triumph of the U-12 children’s team in the tournament that took place at the stadium of the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center in the Dominican Republic, according to Play-Off Magazine.

In the final game, Cuba defeated Venezuela 9-2 and was proclaimed the tournament champion. The official journalist, Boris Luis Cabrera, specified that Asnel Torres and Alfredo Despaigne were recognized with the award for the Most Valuable Player in the final.

The tournament served as preparation for the Cuban team, which on October 19 will take part in the Pan American Championship played in Panama. In this event, three tickets will be at stake for the World Cup in 2025, which will also be based in Panama.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Baseball Player Xian Vega Leaves Cuba and Hopes for a Professional Contract in the United States

Baseball player Xian Vega trains at the International Baseball Academy of Central America / Facebook/Gustavo Mederos

14ymedio/Swing Completo, Havana, 27 August 2024 — Cuban baseball player Xian Vega, 21, has been in Nicaragua since last Monday. Born in Havana, his goal is to reach the United States to look for a job opportunity in a Major League professional team. Meanwhile, he trains at the International Baseball Academy of Central America, according to sports journalist Francys Romero.

It will be in September, at the academy facilities and under the gaze of the talent scouts, when Vega will show his skills. Talent, according to Romero, is not lacking: he was one of the members of the list of best Cuban U-18 baseball players drawn up by the reporter.

Vega was a key piece in the Cienfuegos team, in charge of the director Jorge Rodríguez, and he stood out for his level of play in the last three National Series. Last season, he had a batting percentage of .268/.333/.351, four home runs and 25 RBIs. continue reading

In addition, he was part of the national team that represented the Island in the Pan-American U-23 Championship that took place in Nicaragua in 2023.

Baseball player Bryan Ramos rejected Cuba’s invitation to join the team that will participate in the Premier 12 / Facebook/Francys Romero

Son of actor Herón Vega and grandson of one of the great figures of Cuban cinema, Daisy Granados, the young baseball player emigrates in a moment of weakness for the Cuban Baseball Federation, which is struggling to form a team of Cuban emigrants, who play in the Major Leagues, to participate in the international Premier 12 contest, which will be played from November 9 to 24 in the cities of Guadalajara and Tepic (Mexico).

The Federation received a resounding no from Chicago White Sox player Bryan Ramos, who in 15 games recorded an outstanding batting average. Ramos claimed that he is focused on his work with the team that in 2018 hired him on an entry bonus of 300,000 dollars.

The Federation’s invitation was also rejected by pitcher Denny Larrondo, who plays in the Minor Leagues as part of the Arizona Diamondbacks sports franchise. According to journalist Yordano Carmona, the “Villaclareño told them no, that he did not agree to play with them.”

Julio Robaina, Omar Estévez, Yosver Zulueta, Edgar Quero, Michel Baez and Elian Leyva are also on the list of players who have been invited and have declined.

The players who have accepted so far are Ronald Bolaños, Lázaro Armenteros, Yadir Drake, Darién Núñez, Ernesto Martínez Jr., Yusniel Padrón-Artiles, Yoan López, Roberto Sulivan Baldoquín, Alexei Ramírez and Yadil Mujica.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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