It was a lot of fun hearing my late parents tell stories of Cuban baseball. My mother, born in Ciego de Avila, followed La Habana. My father, born in Sagua La Grande, followed Almendares. They spent many nights in their hometowns, writing each other letters and listening to the games on radio. I guess I inherited their passion for “beisbol.”
Today we remember an important anniversary in Cuban baseball:
On December 29, 1878, the first game is played between two teams of the first professional baseball league in Cuba, later known as the Cuban League. Representing the city of Havana, the Habana club faced off against their greatest rivals, a club from the neighboring suburb of Almendares. Habana, coached by Esteban Bellán, the first Cuban to play professional baseball in the United States, won that inaugural game 21-20.
The first game eventually turned into the very successful Almendares-Habana rivalry, the Cuban version of the Yankees-Red Sox feud. Eventually, they added teams in Marianao and Cienfuegos.
It all started today in 1878!
In 1957-1959 I was eleven/twelve and my team was La Habana. I remember players like Forest Jacobs, and pitcher Vicente Amor and before my time, Pedro Formental. Marianao came along and won a pennant with Napoleon Reyes as manager, and then it was Cienfuegos time to win everything, with players such as Camilo Pascual, Pedro Ramos, Rafael Noble,