Baseball National Series: more wins in one season.

Another absolute record, that of Havana from 1967 to 1968, a tournament of 99 challenges (74 wins and 25 losses), with Juan “Coco” Gómez as director, there is no hope that it can be surpassed.

The unstable total number of games for each team in our National Baseball Series, from its beginning in 1962 to the present day, has caused statistical differences, mainly when computing individual and collective records.

Championships with 27, 35, 45, 51, 51, 60, 66, 75, 75, 90, 97 and 99 games per set form a competitive system in which it is difficult to establish uniformity in the records.

The great baseball connoisseur and creator of statistical methods of practical validity to this day, the American Bill James, pointed out the peculiarity of this sport in which the so-called little numbers constitute one of the most important elements of the game: “In baseball everything is measurable, from the frequency in which a pitcher opens the count with a strike, to which is the pitch that hurts a given batter the most and which is the one that connects the best”.

In the marks achieved by innings or games does not affect the total number of games of the team. The situation appears when we measure in a Series, because the more games the more possibilities of achieving individually superior results.

Collectively, the statistical variations are higher when each team participates in a greater number of games in a competition. In the case of the Cuban Series, most of the records have been achieved in the tournaments of 90 and 99 games, while the records obtained in the events of fewer games, in a per hundred.

Where we most appreciate this difference is in the total number of games won and lost in championships of more than 90 challenges, as you can see in the following list in which are the teams that won the most 60 victories, something that now, in less games, seems unattainable.

Series of 99 Games

VII National Series (1967-68): Habana won 74 and lost 25 (record); Industriales, 69 and 30; Azucareros, 63 and 35 and Mineros, 61 and 38.

VIII National Series (1968-69): Azucareros, 69 and 30; Industriales, 68 and 31; Habana, 68 and 31 and Mineros, 62 and 37.

Series of 90 games

XXXVII Series (97-98): Santiago de Cuba, 61 won and 28 lost.

XXXIX Series (99-2000): Santiago de Cuba, 62 and 28.

XLI National Series (2001-02): Pinar del Río, 64 and 26.

XLII National Series (2002-03): Industriales, 66 and 23.

XLVII National Series (2007-08): Santiago de Cuba, 61 wins and 29 losses and Habana, 61 and 29.

XLVIII National Series (2008-09): Ciego de Avila, 64 and 26.

XLIX National Series (2009-10): Sancti Spiritus, 63 and 27.

LVI National Series (2016-17): Matanzas, 70 and 20 (record at 90).

LVII National Series (2017-18): Matanzas, 61 and 29.

As we can see, of the 18 occasions that they won more than 61 victories, only nine teams were the lucky ones.

In the case of the two Matanzas teams that close the list, they are the last ones after the play-off stages to achieve that figure on two consecutive occasions.

These Matanzas teams were coached by Víctor Mesa and Víctor Figueroa, in the LVI and LVII Series, respectively. The former has a record of 42 wins and only three losses in the first half of the championshi and a total of 70 and 20 for an average, also higher, of 777; while the latter set a record of 33 wins and twelve losses for the last 45 games.

Another absolute record, that of Havana from 1967 to 1968, a tournament of 99 challenges (74 wins and 25 losses), with Juan “Coco” Gómez as director, there is no hope that it can be surpassed.

Written by Francisco Soriano.