By Migue Guerra
The poor performance of Team Cuba in the Gran Caracas 2023 Caribbean Series has been considered by many as expected.
The Agricultores team, champion of the Cuban First Elite League, represents the largest of the Antilles in the most important Caribbean baseball tournament.
However, the performance of the Cuban team has been far below the rest of the teams participating in the tournament.
This performance was expected by many fans and experts in the world of baseball. Being the main reflection of the clear decline in recent years of our national pastime.
The Cuban team is currently in last place in the standings after only one win and five losses, being almost eliminated from the tournament.
They have a mediocre collective batting average of .239 and are in sixth place out of a possible eight in that section.
In terms of pitching, they are in last place, registering a dismal 5.98 ERA so far.
Along with pitching, base running and defense have left much to be desired by the Cubans.
With the reality on paper, this lamentable performance adds to the list of bad performances in recent years for Cuban teams in the international arena.
To quote renowned Cuban journalist and CEO of Swing Completo, Daniel de Malas:
“I am not happy about Cuba’s defeat but I knew what was going to happen, Cuba’s performance has been shameful.”
A user identified as Beny stated that “I would need half an hour to talk about the problems Cuban baseball has.”
A Swing Completo poll, which had 160 online votes, left 93% of users saying that the Cubans’ result in the tournament was expected, while just 6% were surprised.
“Batting is still, with much respect, deplorable,” de Malas asserted, adding at another point that previously “losing to the Americans was horrible.” But now, losing has become common place.
Orlando Padrón, another user in the video, said, “Now I can’t remember the last time Cuba won an international event.”
In the dialogue, de Malas said, “I’m embarrassed, because at the end of the day, we can’t have the team we want there.”
