Sigfredo Barros

CUBAN baseball wasn’t even called what we call it today: the National Series. The press of the era used the term National Amateur Baseball Tournament or simply the INDER Tournament, with four teams emerging from the regional elimination tournaments, in the six provinces existent in the country at the time.

The task was of immense proportions, even though most participants were not fully aware of it. It was about replacing the Cuban League of Professional Baseball, an entity born in December of 1878, with an 83-year history maintained through January, 1961.

This was a league of great ball players. Figures such as Martín Dihigo, José de la Caridad Méndez, Cristóbal Torriente – all members of the Cooperstown Hall of Fame - and stars who excelled in many other countries (Conrado Marrero among others), who filled glorious pages of baseball history over the course of the eight decades during which baseball for profit reigned in Cuba.

Nevertheless, a Revolution had come to power, with enough strength to change everything. Sports, in general, and baseball in particular, would be no exception. A law was approved eliminating, in one fell blow, all professional sports.

On January 14, 1962, Havana’s Latinoamericano Stadium was crammed full with 25,251 fans intrigued to see players who were virtually unknown but very anxious to put on a good show.

It was an historic day, with Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro in attendance. One interesting fact, reported by the newspaper Revolution: "After playing the national anthem and the Internationale, the managers of the four teams approached Fidel - Tony Castaño (Azucareros) with a bat, Fermín Guerra (Occidentales) with a catcher’s mask, Pedro "Natilla" Jiménez (Orientales) with a ball and José María Fernández (Habana) with a glove, to allow Fidel to decide how he would like to start the game and inaugurate the Cuban National Series."

Minutes later, reporter Eddy Martin interviewed a visibly excited Fidel, who affirmed, "Baseball is in the hands of the people now, too. In the first place, these are everyday people, many boys from poor homes who have had the opportunity to play … baseball has become more national, something very important in the new sports system is that people from the interior of the country – Santiago, Pinar del Río, Santa Clara, Camagüey, Matanzas and many more –

have the opportunity to see high quality competitions; before they only got to see the exhibition games."

Later on he predicted, "We are going to have great players and we are going to beat the United States."

The country didn’t have to wait long. Seven years later, some of the players who debuted that Sunday, January 14 - Andrés Telemaco, Ramón Echevarría, Owen Blandino, – returned victorious from the 1969 World Cup in the Dominican Republic, having pulled off a spectacular win over the U.S. team, supported by Dominican fans in Quisqueya Stadium who never stopped shouting, Cuba, Cuba, Cuba! and Yankee go home!

We are celebrating the 50th anniversary of that day. Half a century during which Cuban baseball has taken the highest honors in innumerable international competitions. Baseball was played in eight stadiums this January 14, and in any open space where a ball could be pitched. This was the best tribute possible to those pioneers, those truly responsible for a new kind of baseball being played in Cuba.