Crocodiles go for more.
The Matanzas team has just established a brand in our baseball classics by climbing the award podium nine times in the last ten years, including this season’s result, in which it has already secured a silver medal that could become gold against Granma, from next Sunday, March 28th .
The Industriales team had until this campaign 60 of the Cuban ball the supremacy, tied by the Crocodiles when they were titled champions in the previous season 2019 to 2020.
The result of the capital blues, imposed in the first decade of revolutionary baseball, was eight chances as a medalist. They were brilliant years in which they reaped four consecutive successes, led by coach Ramón Carneado, plus three second places and a third. The four wins in a row, from 1963 to 1966, remain one of the most difficult marks to break in our National Series.
That first decade also had the Azucareros group, from the old province of Las Villas, with three titles and four third places, as well as Henequeneros with a championship won and a third place.
The debut of the so-called “orinegros” occurred in the 5th Series (1965-1966), directed by Juan Bregio, where they were third and in the IX season (1969-1970), champions under the command of Miguel Ángel Domínguez. That triumph was a tremendous gift for our people imbued in the tasks of a historic sugar harvest under the Henequeneros champion slogan, Matanzas one million.
In the second decade (1973-1982), the quality leap of the Pinar del Río teams took place when Vegueros won two gold, two silver and two bronze medals, consolidated in the next period from 1982 to 1992, with four championships and a second place. For Matanzas, Citricultores won the contest in 1977 with Juan Bregio as main technician, who achieved a bronze four years later.
In the next ten years, Henequeneros and Citricultores win six medals, three gold and the others silver. Tomás Soto at the head of the acids won two silver and one golden and Gerardo “Sile” Junco two titles and a second place.
For the stage from 1993 to 2001, the Villa Clara teams come out with great force, with Pedro Jova as director with three first places and two seconds and Santiago de Cuba, with Higinio Vélez at the helm manages to add seven medals (three gold, one silver and three bronzes).
In the next decade (2002 to 2011), Industriales wins four tournaments and a second place and Santiago de Cuba reaches three competitions and a second place. Holguín’s triumphs in 2002 took place here for the first time, led by Héctor Hernández and Habana, who had Esteban Lombillo as helmsman in the 2009 campaign.
After 20 years, without a Matanzas team on the medal table, the provincial authorities designate Víctor Mesa Martínez as the new technical director of the Cocodrilos from the 51st National Series (2011-2012).
With some preparation changes in the team and an iron discipline, in his first year, Matanzas established 16 marks for teams with that name, some of them absolute, added to Henequeneros and Citricultores, including 58 victories with 38 failures in the stage. qualifying. In the quarterfinals they beat Sancti Spíritus four games to three and in the semifinals they fell to Industriales in seven disputed matches, to place themselves as third.
During the six seasons that Victor led Matanzas, he won 374 games and lost 214, with two runners-up and four third places. Although he left that excellent win-loss mark and one for the history of 70 wins and 20 losses in 2017, he always lacked something to win.
Mesa was replaced by Víctor Figueroa, who after a very good 57 Series of 61 wins and 29 losses, with a second stage record of 33 and 12 and a third place, fell sharply in the following campaign with 14 wins and 39 losses last. place in the leaderboard.
In the stage from 2019 to 2020, Armando Ferrer Ruz made his debut as director in the National Series, who achieved the coveted title of a team from Matanzas by beating Las Tunas in the semifinals and Camagüey for gold.
Without adding the final against Granma this year, Ferrer reached 107 victories with 74 failures, a championship and a subtitle, which can turn into gold. Matanzas has in this decade 557 games won and 351 lost, with an average of 613, a mark not achieved by other teams in the history of the National Series.
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