By José Alejandro Rodríguez Zas
This past Saturday March 12, during the 61st installment of the Cuban National Series, the team of the Cachorros de Holguín (13-21) defeated the Industriales (17-16) with a final score of 8-5, in the first of a two-game weekend series in Estadio Calixto García of the so-called Cuban City of the Squares.
Despite the homer by the capital team’s Alberto Calderón, the locals were helped by the offense of talented outfielder Yasiel González, who also hit one out of the park, as well as the two runs driven in by Jorge Luis Peña, and the excellent performance on the mound by Uberleydis Estévez (2-1), who celebrated the 41st birthday of veteran Edilse Silva.
However, beyond the game, which brought a lot of joy to the fans for having beaten the storied team, there was a sorry episode after the game in the ballpark, which heated up social media, literally speaking.
According to the posts by some fans of the Cachorros in different Facebook groups, after the game, there was a fire in one of the areas nearby the stands inside the ballpark.
“About 10 minutes after the game between the Cachorros and the Lions was over in Estadio Calixto García, there was a fire on the padding by the old bullpen of the visiting team and the right side. After no more than 30 minutes, the fire, apparently started by a cigarette, was extinguished. After that, both teams started their training, so the games should be played normally this Sunday,” said user David Alejandro Pérez Pérez
In the short video, we can see how the ground crew try to use a hose to kill the fire. So, other Facebook users refer that the firefighters were nowhere near the facility.
“What happened in the ballpark was a sorry episode. In other games, the firefighters are right outside the ballpark. What happened this time that they were not here? I hope someone tells me,” wrote Leonardo Pérez Góngora.
The truth is that if we look at the short videos circulating in social media, the very workers of the ballpark managed to solve the problem, but no firefighter is present in the ballpark during the whole maneuver.
Up to the moment of writing this note, Cuban or Holguin Baseball authorities had not issued any statements about the incident, in which, fortunately, there were no losses of lives and the material damages–according to the videos–seem minimal.
