CubaPLUS Magazine

Although right now fans think that baseball is not going through its best moment, in as far as its role in international affairs is concerned, the practice of baseball or simply “the pelota” has been a kind of passion for all our compatriots. A beautiful story that began to take shape since its entry into Cuba, in the second half of the 19th century. Nobody disputes today the title it has won, in the hearts of everyone, of being the national sport of the Island. The annals point to the year 1874 as decisive in its official birth in a match held in the legendary Palmar del Junco stadium, in the western city of Matanzas, an enclave  close to Havana.

Although its practice had started before that date. From then until the present, when we are experiencing a stage of readjustments to the regulations, which in the world the rules of that game have drastically changed, the Cubans, both athletes and fans had the opportunity to live and enjoy a so-called era of gold, with a victorious and sensational career of its star players, not only within the country, but at planet level. A brief survey of the history of baseball clarifies that its practice was born and became popular in the United States around 1845, with the creation by Alexander J. Cartwright of the first team from New York and the world.

It didn't take long for the original game to push the limits of its country, due to the followers it quickly conquered. There are indications that it was American sailors who introduced its exercise at a port of Matanzas, mainly due to young students. They say that the enjoyment it generated later became an overwhelming adhesion. And already in 1865 the beginning of the transmission of knowledge to make the passes of the game from those young people from the northern country, who offered the first classes to the Cuban boys.

.From Matanzas, the sports convener went to Havana, where the novice boys from the aristocratic neighborhood of El Vedado got involved with great enthusiasm enjoying this game. Nemesio Guillo is the name of a young man who stands out as the founder of baseball in Cuba, who studied in the United States, like José Dolores Amieva and his two brothers. They helped to polish the entry of his techniques and contributed decisively to spreading the sport that would later reign among his compatriots.

They created a team in Matanzas, which was followed by the construction in Pueblo Nuevo, in that same region, of the iconic Palmar del Junco stadium. We already said it, that place is honored as a glorious jewel in the history of the beloved national sport. Although the government of the Spanish metropolis put up very serious obstacles and went so far as to prohibit the practice of the emerging sport, it could achieve nothing.

And so on December 27, 1874 It officially appears as the date of the birth of Cuban baseball, in Palmar del Junco. And the first national championship took place on December 29, 1878 with a challenge between Habana and Almendares, teams that later became rivals of renown.