This truly has been “The Year of Matanzas” and “The Year of Victor Mesa.” My bet is that Matanzas will win out over Industriales in six games. Ciego de Avila should edge past Granma, although the Stallions have enough offense to drag that series out to a full program of seven games.
Cuba’s final National Series weekend finished with a true flourish – a Sunday afternoon crammed with sufficient action that included a new league home run record and three teams reaching playoff status on the final day of the campaign.
Granma’s Alfredo Despaigne took back sole position of the league record with his 36th smash of the campaign, on an inside-the-park homer Sunday afternoon in his second-to-last at-bat of the season.
Oakland A’s rookie slugger Yoennis Céspedes has already surrendered his share of the Cuban League single-season home run record. But apparently not looking back, Céspedes has been busy enough making his own loud splash at the big league level during Major League Baseball’s opening week.
In a surprise announcement released on Tuesday in Havana, USA Baseball has reported the renewal of a long suspended “international friendship series” between the American national collegiate all-stars and a similar squad composed of top-level Cuban collegiate all-stars.