The curtain fell after the international calendar for this year 2024 was over and Cuban baseball left without any applause, after starring in the city of Taipei, China, in its worst performance in the history of the Premier 12, tournaments attended by the best-ranked countries in the world.

With half-empty seats and a shower of criticism in all the media since previous days, the national team finished in eleventh place, the product of just one win and four lost.

Before the lights went out on the season, the World Baseball and Softball Confederation, taking into account the mark left in international events by the Cuban representative teams in all categories, placed the country in tenth position in its world ranking.

Cuba, which arrived in Asia in ninth place and led the world ranking until 2012, was the nation that generated the fewest points this year among those ranked among the top 10, so its role in the foreign arena can be classified as a tragedy and not only because of its disastrous end.

The third place among six participating teams that they achieved with a selection of talents in the Caribbean Cup held in Bahamas in the last week of October, also left a bad taste in the mouths of baseball fans.

A hard-fought 2-1 victory over San Martin to take bronze in that tournament could not erase the disappointments experienced after the failures against Curacao and the United States Virgin Islands.

To the list of displeasures we must also add the performance in September of the Cocodrilos de Matanzas team in the Barcelona Baseball Cup, where they achieved success against the All Stars Spain and were defeated by the Algodoneros de Guasave of the Mexican Pacific League and by the national team of Catalonia.

At the beginning of the year, the Matanzas team, champions of the II Elite League, had been proclaimed first in the so-called Series of the Stars, an event held in Matanzas, where four teams participated, among them two teams from Mexico and Venezuela.

In lower categories, although the U-15 were unable to win their ticket to the World Cup for the first time in history in the continental competition held in the Dominican Republic, the U-12 and the youth did secure places in the world events, to give the country one of the few joys in 2024.

The U-12, represented by Villa Clara, performed outstandingly in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and although they only won one game in three matches, they showed that grit and hunger for winning that characterized our teams in past decades.

The national team in that category, after finishing undefeated in an invitation tournament held in Quisqueya, won the bronze medal in the Pan American Championship in Panama and its place in the World Cup.

The youth team also achieved this goal in the regional tournament held in that Central American nation by advancing to the semi-finals with impeccable work, and although they were ultimately unable to climb to the podium, they won the admiration of fans.

Women also had a presence outside our borders in one of the qualifying groups for the final phase of the world championship held in the Japanese city of Miyoshi, where they had a discreet performance by exhibiting a 1-4 record to be eliminated.

Undoubtedly, the two glorious moments of our national sport in this year that is ending were the crowns achieved in the world championships of baseball for the blind and in Baseball5, with venues in Italy and Hong Kong, respectively.

The latter, although it really is a different sport born in the streets of Cuba that has its roots in baseball, is worth highlighting in this summary, but it would take a separate chapter.

In 2025, new challenges will come for our favorite hobby, the first of them in the second weeks of January in Nicaragua within the framework of the new Series of the Americas, in which in addition to the hosts there will be the teams from Colombia, Curacao, Argentina, and Panama.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff