By Boris Luis Cabrera
From the Sports editorial team
Beyond the emigration of many of its main figures and the hiring of others in foreign professional leagues, which logically decrease the quality, the season fulfilled its objective and kept the baseball passion high in neighborhoods and communities.
The Leñadores de Las Tunas stole the show by winning the title for the second consecutive year and reaffirming themselves as the best team in the last seven seasons, after waiting four decades to get on the awards podium.
Since 2018, when they surprised the experts by occupying the second place for the first time since their foundation in 1977, the so-called “Eastern Nightmare” has achieved three championships and two third places.
With a roster that has not changed much in recent years, the success of this team was in the unity and discipline achieved first by the helmsman Pablo Civil and then by his substitute Abeyci Pantoja, who led them to the crown in the last two contests.
The Leñadores grew during the regular phase and after finishing third, they beat the Tigres de Ciego de Ávila in a close duel that extended to seven games in the quarterfinals, a team that in the second decade of this century won three crowns and threatened to renew its laurels.
From that moment on, the easterners had to face two dangerous and motivated teams like the Alazanes de Granma and the Vegueros de Pinar del Río, but there was no force capable of stopping them.
In just five games they beat the Granma team in the semifinals, a team with a similar history to them by taking four domestic crowns from 2017 to 2022, after waiting eight decades without titles or podiums.
Also in five games they defeated the Pinar del Río team in the grand final, who arrived with the label of favorites, by overwhelmingly dominating the qualifying stage with several records included.
The western team gave a lot of energy to the championship with their 50 wins, the record of home runs for a 75-game tournament (87) and the dominance they exerted against their rivals by winning all the individual duels, a feat that no other team had achieved in the past.
However, Las Tunas’ victory was overwhelming by manufacturing almost twice as many runs as their opponents, leaving them with an offensive average of .263 and allowing only 1.76 earned runs per nine innings. In general, the 2024 season of the Cuban Baseball Championship, in which 16 teams representing all provinces participate, showed the imbalance between offense and pitching and continued to be marked by a large number of errors and failures in tactical thinking.
The batters, taking advantage of the fact that the average speed of the pitchers is around 85 miles per hour, averaged .299 with 809 home runs (one every 48.6 official visits to the plate) and scored 6,882 runs in 594 games.
For their part, the pitchers, with an ERA of 5.29 earned runs per game, allowed 4,965 walks in 9,927 innings, to conclude with a high average of rivals on base in each inning (Whip) of 1.68.
The defense was one of the most deficient in recent decades with a collective average of .967, committing a whopping 1,459 errors, not counting those that do not go into the books.
All this is due to multiple factors that will not improve in the coming years, because beyond the scourge of emigration – increased by the breaking of the agreement with Major League Baseball (MLB) – and the hiring of the best exponents in other leagues, there is damage in the sports pyramid.
As a consequence of the country’s economic crisis, very little is played in the minor leagues, tournaments have been suspended or postponed and it is increasingly difficult to buy equipment to develop players and maintain stadiums.
All these negative elements are caused, to a large extent, by the United States blockade on Cuba for more than 60 years. Baseball campaigns, and this last one was no exception, continue to attract the attention of fans who, between criticism and cheers, maintain their passion for baseball and defend the colors of their provinces and cheer on their idols.
This season, there were several names that stole headlines bats in hand or their pitching performances, such as Alfredo Despaigne of Granma, leader in homeruns (20), on-base average (.575), slugging (.744) and the OPS (1.319).
Others from the pitchers´ box, Rachel Duquesne al liderar led with 9 victories and 72 strike outs, Yankiel Mauris of Sancti Spiritus in saved games (12) and Leandro Martínez from Granma in Whip (1.14).
Ediel Ponce also from Ciego de Avila was Rookie of the Year, for his effectiveness of 2.15 runs allowed in a full game, leader in that department.
ef/arc/blc
