Starting tomorrow, Cuba is celebrating. Baseball, a cultural heritage of the nation, invites us with its exciting playoff games after a long and eventful season.
It is the most anticipated moment of the national series because every game matters and counts; because the players give more than ever in pursuit of the title, and because the fans live every game intensely, even when their preferred team is not on the field.
Alexei Ramírez, the only Cuban baseball player with one hundred or more home runs in our classics and in Major League Baseball, in a message to the people of Villa Clara after achieving an epic qualification, said: "Enjoy it, you deserve it." We take the phrase from the singular player from Pinar del Río so that we can fully enjoy our baseball, supporting in the stadiums those who have not stopped giving their all since September, in order to satisfy their fans.
Eight teams will go out to seek their spot in the semifinals, in which only four can fit. Las Tunas, who have won the last two editions, is again among the favorites in a campaign seeking its third consecutive crown, which only two teams have achieved: Industriales, who won four in a row (1963, 1964, 1965, and 1966), and Villa Clara, who were champions successively in 1993, 1994, and 1995.
Matanzas, Holguín, Mayabeque, Industriales, Artemisa, Sancti Spíritus, and Villa Clara are the other seven contenders. The first to start these crucial challenges, best of seven with four wins needed, will be Mayabeque vs. Industriales in San José de las Lajas, and Holguín vs. Artemisa in the city of parks.
