Under-18 World Cup: Another Setback for Cuban Baseball

I don't remember ever before hearing a Cuban baseball manager classify a performance in an international event as a failure.

There are plenty of reasons in recent years, but no one had the courage of the manager of the U-18 team, Severo Crespo, after being eliminated in the first round of the Pan American Championship of the discipline, based in Baja California del Sur, Mexico.

After losing with a score of 0x9 against their counterpart from Nicaragua on the last date of qualifying group A, the Cuban team lost any chance of accessing the Super Round of the tournament, concluding with a balance of one victory and two defeats, just like the Nicaraguans, but as they lost to Nicaragua in their match.

The setback takes Cuba out of the teams with aspirations to get a ticket to the World Cup in the category next year, since the place of our team will not be better than number seven.

The Cuban team, the top winner in these tournaments with eight titles in their showcases, will have to play in the consolation round, but there will be no consolation for a team with far greater expectations.

On paper, the Mexican hosts were a difficult team to beat, especially in their stadium, but against Nicaragua the favorites were the Cubans, and everything went wrong.

The shortcomings of the older teams exist because they come from the lower categories, where a very important weight is borne by the reduced schedule of national competitions, where the boys have very little margin to eliminate their shortages.

The team has a lot of talent, but for it to explode to its full potential it must be polished, work hard during training and play, especially play for most of the year, and not just a couple of weeks.

It has been always repeated that the work at the base is essential to later reap the rewards when we face a World Classic or a Premier 12 tournament, but as long as those who nurture those teams play so little, we will continue to accumulate failures.

Participation in this competition in Mexico was poor, it’s true, but it will be one more if the matter is not taken action immediately, because to reach the top you have to start climbing from below.

As long as so little is played, as long as the costs of implements are paid mostly from the pockets of the parents and the latter even threatens the permanence in the sport of a talented child, it will be very difficult to recover the prestige of Cuban baseball.

Our national sport is expensive, it’s no secret to anyone, but what it represents for society more than covers the economic sacrifices it deserves, and requires that every penny go to the right place. Otherwise, failure will continue to haunt us again and again.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff