National Baseball Day in Cuba: A Cuban Passion

The President of the Cuban Baseball-Softball Federation Juan Reinaldo Pérez said through his official Twitter account that  "allegorical to this date, today all Cubans celebrate Baseball Day."

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According to experts and historians, baseball was introduced to the island in 1860 by Cubans studying or living in the U.S., the country where the sport was born in 1845.

Its influence also came through U.S. sailors calling at Cuban ports, and its rapid expansion worried the authorities of the island, then a Spanish colony.

Francisco de Lersundi, Captain General of the Island, issued a decree on October 1, 1868, suppressing the practice of baseball in national territory, considering it "an anti-Spanish game and of insurrectionary tendency, contrary to the language and conducive to disaffection with Spain."

On December 29, 1878, the first official Baseball Championship was held in our country, allegorical to this date, today all Cubans celebrate Baseball Day. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

In spite of this, on December 27, 1874, the teams of Havana and Matanzas faced each other at the Palmar de Junco stadium, in the first official baseball game registered in Cuba.

In 1961 a new championship model began, known as the National Series, with more teams and players and which, with several changes in its design. This model has been maintained to the present day.

Cuba remains among the elite of world baseball, with Olympic crowns in 1992, 1996 and 2004, 25 world titles, 11 Intercontinental Cups, 12 Pan American and 15 Central American gold medals, as well as second place in the first World Classic.

The Caribbean island stands out in the world's strongest professional arenas, such as the Major Leagues of the U.S., the leagues of Japan, South Korea, Venezuela, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.