Martires de Barbados will host the official opening of the tournament with a game between the two finalists of recent years: Granma and Matanzas. Author: Abel Rojas Barallobre

The last of the popular World Classic controversy has yet to fall, and the game is already kicking off in National Series 62. It will be a season with adjustments to ensure a 75-game regular phase calendar, a record for most new directors, and the trend of polarization in player age continues. : very young and very experienced.

Next Wednesday, action will kick off in eight parks in the country, although the official inauguration is scheduled for Martires de Barbados, home to the reigning Granma National Champions, who are also inaugurating their mentor.

Like them, Cuba will miss Don Carlos Marti Santos, who said goodbye with such glory and humility that he would never fit on a baseball field.

As reported, the tournament was conceived as a sub-series of five games, including double-header days, to complete this stage before the Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador in June, a meeting that Cuba plans to attend with a selected roster. athletes of the National Series.

This chain of matches causes tension among the serving staffs. Especially it makes it necessary to have rotations of five or six, and it will also require more bullpen protagonist. It is known that our teams lack the depth of personnel, and specialization cannot always be met.

Having more than 180 rookies is in itself a challenge for the quality of the tournament, and if you add those who gain less than three seasons to this number, then the number of young people will grow exponentially.

Constant victims due to migration and foreign contracts covered by the Cuban Baseball Federation, or as a result of personal efforts, note an imbalance in the payrolls year after year.

Faced with this reality, the challenges point to the need to improve the living conditions and competition of athletes, as well as the understanding that the National Series is more than a baseball game played in the middle of two lime lanes.

The fans are also the protagonists, and the promotion of all that brings satisfaction, identity and reproduction of the best values ​​of the sport is the key to a championship that should once again captivate audiences of all ages.

To Rubière

Making predictions is suicide. Recent campaigns have confirmed that the lists of participants change a lot during the course of the fair, and many of them end up with lists that are significantly reduced compared to the original ones. In fact, since the teams were announced, some have already been changed.

However, no matter how they transform, there are units that look more competitive. Runner-up Matanzas is one of them. Some of those registered will play abroad, but even then they have the potential to qualify and even reclaim the crown that Alazan has snatched in the last two seasons.

Suffice it to mention the names of Andris Perez, Jurisbel Gracial, Yadil Mujica, Yariel Duque, Eduardo Blanco, Ariel Sanchez, Moises Esquerre, who returned to the team, as well as pitchers Yoanni Yera, Renner Rivero, Nikel Cruz and Yanmichel Perez. place Crocodiles in the elite group of soothsayers.

Industriales also has a roster with enough tools to take the series far. This could be the year of returning to the final and winning it after 13 years, seeing others celebrate the greatest laurel.

Oscar Valdes, Yaciel Santoya, Jorge Enrique Aloma, Roberto Acevedo, Alberto Calderon, Josvany Peñalver and Joasan Guillén attack with pieces that Guillermo Carmona has to support a serve in which Pavel Hernandez, Marco Ortega, Raymond Figueredo and Andy Vargas.

After an excellent campaign that took them to the quarter-finals last year, Mayabeke will now seek dedication with an unprecedented result for this young province.

Michael Gonzalez gained experience as a helmsman and also put together a balanced group, to which he added Raudelin Legré to put on the harness. There are high hopes for what Yasniel Gonzalez, Rangel Ramos, Dennis Laza, Alexander Poso, Jason Martinez returning to the Hurricanes and pitchers Yadian Martinez, Marlon Vega and Jose Ignacio Bermudez as leaders are capable of doing on the field. personnel.

I include among those who have the most options, judging by the lists of participants, the monarch Alasanis de Granma, despite the fact that they will have a big problem getting, but they have experienced players who are able to maintain the euphoria that exists in this area with your team.

Of the rest, there is a group in which I would place Holguin, La Isla, Las Tunas, Pinar del Rio, Camaguey and beware of Guantanamo, whose talented young hands may lead them to a result that will shock the Indians and their devoted fans. .

But you have already seen that predictions are predictions. It looks like a tournament with some payrolls above the rest in fairness and the rest with parity, with which one could say that not all playoff qualifiers will be known until the last minute.

noobs with steering wheel

Half of the directors who will work on the next “National Series” will take on this responsibility for the first time, and two of them will return: Ramon More with “Villa Clara” and Felicio Garcia at the helm of “Holguin”.

The most experienced of the current 16 is Guillermo Carmona, who has played nine seasons, adding to that the number of times he has managed the Metropolitanos and Industriales.

Another person with more than five years of experience is Agustin Lescaille from Guantanamo Bay (seven years).

Of these, only Armando Ferrer (2020) and Ramon Moret (2013) have lifted the crown, and together with Carmona, they have accumulated at least one podium finish. The rest don’t know what it means to hang a medal in such cases, according to Benigno Daquinta’s files.

That the rivalry on the playing field is accompanied by a logistical and organizational management that meets the requirements of what is still considered the largest sporting event in Cuba.

Industriales and Mayabeque could revive the postseason again. Photo: Abel Rojas Barallobre

Source: Juventud Rebelde