By Yasel Porto
The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), made official this weekend the creation of the Cuban Baseball Research Group, belonging to the Latino Baseball Research Committee of this important institution in the United States.
It was during the 50th edition of the SABR Annual Convention, held this 2022 in the city of Baltimore, that the official announcement of the Cuban team was made within one of the most influential organizations in North American baseball.
SABR, which visualizes part of its work in the renowned baseball.reference.com website, has around 5,000 members who reside mainly in the United States and Canada.
This Society includes chapters and committees, which specialize in topics and regions that make it possible to better organize the extensive work with the history and present of baseball. And now Cuba has joined as a country and subject at the same time.
This group is made up of official members and collaborators (known in SABR as fact-checkers), mainly residing in Cuba and the United States. The essential work will be aimed at compiling historical information on Cuban baseball in order to make it publicly known and not lose so much individual and collective legacy.
The first Cuban to join SABR was the late historian Ismael Sené, and later others joined, including Reynaldo Cruz (recently elected vice chair of the Latin Committee and one of the vice chairs of the Cuban Group), Daniel de Malas (Chair of the Cuban Group), Daniel Palacios, Clem Axel (one of the vice chairs of the Cuban Group), Carlos David Rojas (who has designed the logo to be used by the group as a brand recognized by SABR), Yirsandy Rodríguez, Oscar Fernández, Tony Pérez, Alexis Carmona, Juan Martínez de Osaba, Rolando Sánchez, Pablo Enrique Díaz and myself (another of the vice chairs of the Cuban Group).
In addition, several foreigners have joined the Subcommittee, such as Kit Krieger (instrumental in Sené’s incorporation into the Society, and also in bringing several SABR members to Cuba over the years along with Clem Axel), Bill Nowlin (Boston Red Sox writer and member of the SABR Board), Saul Wisnia (biographer of Luis Tiant Jr., whose photographer son Jason Alpert-Wisnia has recently joined the Swing Completo team), among many others.
A few days ago, a special group for members and collaborators was created, to which all interested parties have the doors open.
