Cocodrilos de Matanzas in Catalan Baseball Week.

The Matanzas team, champion of the Second Elite Baseball League, will represent Cuba in the Catalan Baseball Week from September 25th to 29th, in Barcelona.

The Matanzas team, champion of the Second Elite Baseball League, will represent Cuba in the Catalan Baseball Week scheduled for September 25th to 29th in Barcelona.

Also competing will be the strong Mexican professional team Algodoneros de Guasave, the Absolute Catalan National Team and the All-Star team from Spain, according to the Cuban Baseball Federation.

On other occasions, players from Matanzas, as part of teams representing Cuba or under contract, have competed in that country. Let’s remember the winning team of the Tenth Intercontinental Cup, in Barcelona 1991, which included Lázaro Junco, Julio Germán Fernández, José Estrada González, Carlos Kindelán and Jorge Antonio Martínez, as well as the director Gerardo «Sile» Junco, the assistant Armando Ferrer and this writer, who narrated along with Roberto Pacheco on Radio Rebelde for all of Cuba the incidents of the tournament; In 1992, on the occasion of the Olympic Games, also in the beautiful city of Barcelona, Jorge Luis Valdés and José Estrada did the same.

Later, in the University Games, in the same place, Félix Isasi (son) and Joel Monzón Mejías made up the national roster.

Yumurinos Aníbal Medina, Armando Dueñas, Yunieski Sánchez, Néstor Pérez and Eduardo Blanco, among others, have also played in Spanish teams.

History of the arrival of baseball in Spain

Many historians agree that baseball began relatively early in Spain thanks to the descendants of immigrants who brought it from Cuba and Puerto Rico, when these territories ceased to be Spanish colonies.

Other scholars point out that it was introduced in Spain by journalist Agustín Peris, specifically in Catalonia, and in 1929 the Catalan Baseball Federation was created.

But the most logical thing is the first, as the page Historiaelectoral.com points out: Years later and after the Spanish-American war, people who knew or had practiced this sport in the Antilles emigrated to peninsular Spain. Throughout the following two decades (1900-1920), different Spanish clubs sprouted that included among their first players and coaches the Spaniards of Antillean origin, being mostly amateurs who played friendly matches or small tournaments among them until the end of the 20’s and during the 30’s, when the first Spanish clubs started to play the sport in the Antilles.
of the 20’s and during the 30’s the first regional and municipal championships were organized.

The city of Barcelona is recognized as the place where the first baseball game was staged in Spain in 1901 and in Madrid in 1903. This document adds something very significant: «teams with a certain stability did not appear in Catalonia until they were supported by soccer clubs: CE Europa (1921), FC Barcelona (1931) and RCD Espanyol (1932, which was nine times champion of Catalonia)».

The first ones were established in towns near Barcelona, the city where baseball was Olympic for the first time in the 1992 games. The first Catalonian Championship is played in 1929 (Olímpic is the first champion), In Madrid the first Castilla Championship arrives in 1944 and America wins; the Real Madrid team, created in 1943, does not participate; Piratas BC (1945) and Atlético Madrid (1947), among others, will follow.

The influence of soccer is notable in Spain, which is why the baseball phraseology undergoes changes in the narrations or journalistic writings of the Iberian nation.
The most striking ones heard during our visit to Barcelona were:

-the team on offense is called ATACANTE.
-the pitcher’s team is the DEFENDER.
-the home play or batting area is referred to as home plate or home base.
– they call the infielders and outfielders with soccer terms.
– The infielders are the infielders: third, third baseman, shortstop, second baseman and first baseman, some narrators mention third baseman as left infielder; right infielder is the first baseman.
-Center fielders are the shortstop and second baseman.
-The outfielders are the outfielders: left, center and right.

The Spanish baseball league is divided into divisions, the Division of Honor and the First Division. The best teams play in the
first division.

In each division, a team plays all other teams twice, once at home and once away, and twice on the same day,during the regular season. There are no playoffs. The top four teams at the end of the season play in the Copa del Rey. The champion and the cup winner play in the various European Cups.

One of the great competitors is CB Viladecans of Barcelona, multiple champion of the country, whose field was officially used during the Tenth Intercontinental Baseball Cup in 1991 and at the Olympic Games the following year, in Barcelona itself.

Two other outstanding teams were Picadero J.C. and Piratas de Madrid, holders of the European Champions Cup, the former in 1963 and 1968 and the latter in 1964 and 1967.

Last year, 2023, Spain won the European Baseball Championship, after 68 years, by beating Great Britain and eliminating the strong Netherlands (Holland). Seven Cubans played on the Spanish roster and were prominent in the triumph: pitchers Pablo Guillén and Carlos Sierra, as well as catcher Omar Hernández and Orlando Rodríguez, Frank Hernández and Rogelio Armenteros. There was also a Cuban presence in the team’s management, manager Nelson Prada and the bench coach was Néstor Pérez (son) from Matanzas.

The year also brought a Spanish smile on the face of the Catalonia Youth team, which beat the Czech Republic in the gold medal match,
in the European Championship in that category.

In the history of European baseball tournaments, Spain has won two championships, two subtitles and 15 third places.

The Catalan Baseball Week, from September 25th to 29th, will be a tough test for the two Iberian teams, as the Cocodrilos de Matanzas, from Matanzas, Cuba, will be the first team to win the European Championship.
Cocodrilos de Matanzas, representing Cuba, and the Algodoneros de Guasave, from Mexico, will present strong rosters that make them favorites.

BIBLIOGRAPHY CONSULTED:
-History of Spanish Baseball (Historia electoral.com).
– España vuelve a ser campeón de Europa en béisbol, 68 años después. Newsroom Infobae.
-Author’s notes.

Written by Francisco Soriano.