Cuban National Series

Cuban National Series
Sport	Baseball
Founded	1961
No. of teams	16
Country	Cuba
Most recent; champion(s)	Matanzas (1st title)
Most titles	Industriales (12)
TV partner(s)	Tele Rebelde (Cuba); Cubamax TV (USA, since 2019-2020 season)

The Cuban National Series (Spanish: Serie Nacional de Béisbol, SNB) is the primary domestic professional baseball competition in Cuba. Formed after the dissolution of the Cuban League in the wake of the Cuban Revolution, the Series is a part of the Cuban national baseball system.

League structure

Camagüey

Ciego de Ávila

Cienfuegos

Bayamo

Guantánamo

Holguín

Havana

Isla de la Juventud

San Jose de Las Lajas

Las Tunas

Matanzas

Pinar del Río

Sancti Spíritus

Santiago de Cuba

Villa Clara

Artemisa

Location of teams in the Cuban National Series

Since 1993, the league has had 16 teams: one representing each province, and one for the city of Havana. Each team is made up of players from the province it represents.

In Havana, most of the top tier players take the field for Industriales, traditionally the strongest team in the league. Other typically strong teams include those from Santiago de Cuba, Pinar del Río and Villa Clara.

The 96-game regular season stretches from early August until late January, split into two halves – the fall period stretches from August to early October and the winter period from late October to early January the following year, and culminates with a six team postseason tournament in January to decide the league champion, the winner of which then goes on, since 2015, to become the Cuban representative to the Caribbean Series.

Since the 2008–2009 championship, the Cuban League has been reorganized – qualification is by zones, and not in groups as it had been the previous 15 years.

In the 2011–2012 series, there were 17 competing teams, since Havana Province was split into two provinces: Artemisa Province and Mayabeque Province. Thus, the Western League had 9 teams. The Artemisa team were named "Hunters" (Spanish "Cazadores"), and the Mayabeque team "Hurricanes" (Spanish "huracanes"). Beginning with the 2012–13 season, the Metropolitanos, long seen as the "farm team" of Havana's other team, powerhouse Industriales, will no longer field a team. This brings the number of competing teams back down to 16.

The Cuban National Series is the beginning of the preparation for all the selection for the formation of the Cuban national baseball team players for international competitions during the summer, as well as for the World Baseball Classic and the Olympics (1992–2008 and from 2020 onward). The Cuban National Team Preselection is selected from the Series and Havana is the venue for team practice games before international competitions. Sometimes more than one team can be asked to select players for international duty as part of the national team.

To accommodate the 2013 World Baseball Classic, the league took a six-week break after the February 3rd All-Star Game. The Series Nacional played a shortened 45 game season, with all 16 teams competing in a single table format (doing away with the regular two division format). The bottom 8 seeded team then played amongst themselves in the consolation round, while the top 8 seeded teams did the same for the championship. In 2014, the consolation round format for the midseason was officially adopted, effectively making it a de facto wild card game with the winners having a chance to make it to the postseason.

The designated hitter is used in all games, in addition, the CNS All Star Game is held yearly in the middle of the regular season in between the phrases.

West Teams

Team	Nickname	Location	Stadium
Isla de la Juventud	Pirates (Spanish: Piratas)	Nueva Gerona	Estadio Cristóbal Labra
Matanzas	Crocodiles (Spanish: Cocodrilos)	Matanzas	Victoria de Girón Stadium
Pinar del Río	Lowland Growers (Spanish: Vegueros)	Pinar del Río	Estadio Capitán San Luis
Industriales	Lions (Spanish: Leones)	Havana	Estadio Latinoamericano
Cienfuegos	Elephants (Spanish: Elefantes)	Cienfuegos	Cinco de Septiembre Stadium
Sancti Spíritus	Roosters (Spanish: Gallos)	Sancti Spíritus	José Antonio Huelga Stadium
Artemisa	Hunters (Spanish: Cazadores)	Artemisa	Estadio 26 de Julio
Mayabeque	Hurricanes (Spanish: Huracanes)	San José de Las Lajas	Estadio Nelson Fernández

East Teams

Team	Nickname	Location	Stadium
Camagüey	Bulls (Spanish: Toros)	Camagüey	Estadio Cándido González
Ciego de Ávila	Tigers (Spanish: Tigres)	Ciego de Ávila	José Ramón Cepero Stadium
Las Tunas	Lumberjacks (Spanish: Leñadores)	Victoria de Las Tunas	Julio Antonio Mella Stadium
Villa Clara	Sugarmakers (Spanish: Azucareros)	Santa Clara	Estadio Augusto César Sandino
Granma	Sorrels (Spanish: Alazanes)	Bayamo	Mártires de Barbados Stadium
Guantánamo	Indians (Spanish: Indios)	Guantánamo	Nguyen Van Troi Stadium
Holguín	Cubs (Spanish: Cachorros)	Holguín	Calixto García Íñiguez Stadium
Santiago de Cuba	Wasps (Spanish: Avispas)	Santiago de Cuba	Estadio Guillermón Moncada

National Series champions

Series	Year	Winning team	Manager
1	1962	Occidentales	Fermín Guerra
2	1963	Industriales	Ramón Carneado
3	1964	Industriales	Ramón Carneado
4	1965	Industriales	Ramón Carneado
5	1966	Industriales	Ramón Carneado
6	1967	Orientales	Roberto Ledo
7	1968	Habana	Juan Gómez
8	1969	Azucareros / Villa Clara	Servio Borges
9	1970	Henequeneros	Miguel A. Domínguez
10	1971	Azucareros / Villa Clara	Servio Borges
11	1972	Azucareros / Villa Clara	Pedro P. Delgado
12	1973	Industriales	Pedro Chávez
13	1974	Habana	Jorge Trigoura
14	1975	Agricultores	Orlando Leroux
15	1976	Ganaderos	Carlos Gómez
16	1977	Citricultores	Juan Bregio
17	1978	Vegueros	José M. Pineda
18	1979	Sancti Spíritus	Cándido Andrade
19	1980	Santiago de Cuba	Manuel Miyar
20	1981	Vegueros	José M. Pineda
21	1982	Vegueros	Jorge Fuentes
22	1983	Villa Clara	Eduardo Martín
23	1984	Citricultores	Tomás Soto
24	1985	Vegueros	Jorge Fuentes
25	1986	Industriales	Pedro Chávez
26	1987	Vegueros	Jorge Fuentes
27	1988	Vegueros	Jorge Fuentes
28	1989	Santiago de Cuba	Higinio Vélez
29	1990	Henequeneros	Gerardo Junco
30	1991	Henequeneros	Gerardo Junco
31	1992	Industriales	Jorge Trigoura
32	1993	Villa Clara	Pedro Jova
33	1994	Villa Clara	Pedro Jova
34	1995	Villa Clara	Pedro Jova
35	1996	Industriales	Pedro Medina
36	1997	Pinar del Río	Jorge Fuentes
37	1998	Pinar del Río	Alfonso Urquiola
38	1999	Santiago de Cuba	Higinio Vélez
39	2000	Santiago de Cuba	Higinio Vélez
40	2001	Santiago de Cuba	Higinio Vélez
41	2002	Holguín	Héctor Hernández
42	2003	Industriales	Rey Vicente Anglada
43	2004	Industriales	Rey Vicente Anglada
44	2005	Santiago de Cuba	Antonio Pacheco
45	2006	Industriales	Rey Vicente Anglada
46	2007	Santiago de Cuba	Antonio Pacheco
47	2008	Santiago de Cuba	Antonio Pacheco
48	2009	Habana	Esteban Lombillo
49	2010	Industriales	Germán Mesa
50	2011	Pinar del Río	Alfonso Urquiola
51	2012	Ciego de Ávila	Roger Machado
52	2013	Villa Clara	Ramón Moré
53	2014	Pinar del Río	Alfonso Urquiola
54	2015	Ciego de Ávila	Roger Machado
55	2016	Ciego de Ávila	Roger Machado
56	2017	Granma	Carlos Martí
57	2018	Granma	Carlos Martí
58	2019	Las Tunas	Pablo Civil
59	2020	Matanzas	Armando Ferrer Ruiz

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gollark: Nonsense, this is a very correct and valid* line.

gollark: Here is a graph of government doing things (x axis) plotted against socialism (y axis).

gollark: I'm not allowed to type swear words, since a very convoluted legal battle in 2006.

gollark: There are memes about it, so it's a real and valid ideology.

External links

Cuban baseball
Connor, Joe, Welcome to Cuba. ESPN (MLB), January 17, 2006. Retrieved 2009-12-16.
Baseball in Cuba The Cuban National Series. Games and stats
Baseball de Cuba Daily league coverage. English and Spanish content.

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