Cuban national baseball system

The Cuban baseball league system is not a single baseball league; rather it is a structure of leagues and series that are governed by the Baseball Federation of Cuba and culminate in national championships and the selection of the Cuba national baseball team.

The players are amateurs and play for the provinces in which they reside. All of the provinces in Cuba are represented by teams.

The National Series generally runs from November through April with a schedule of 90 games per team in the regular season. The series is then followed by 3 playoff rounds culminating in a championship. This series has been played each winter since 1961-62. There are 16 teams organized in a West League and an East League. The top four teams from each league advance to a playoff, with the winner crowned in April. Two teams have dominated the National Series in recent years: Industriales and Santiago de Cuba.

The Super Series is usually played from May through July with a schedule of about 28 games. The series is followed by a playoff between the two top teams. Its teams are selected from the best players of the National Series. In turn, the Cuban national team is selected from the players in the Super Series. Five regional teams compete:

Prior to the Cuban Revolution, various professional, semiprofessional, industrial, and amateur baseball leagues and teams flourished in Cuba, including the professional Cuban League and the minor league Havana Sugar Kings.

Since the Cuban Revolution, baseball continued to thrive as Cuba's national game. In February 1961 the government created the National Institute for Sports, Physical Education, and Recreation (INDER) and in March, after the close of the 1960–61 Cuban League season, it decreed the abolition of professional baseball and plans to hold a national amateur championship.

The first National Series, 1961-62, included four teams: Occidentales, Orientales, Habana, and Azucareros. The next season the number of teams had increased to six, and in 1967 to 12. The expansion of baseball to the provinces was accompanied by the construction of new stadiums in provincial capitals, bringing first-tier baseball to the provincial population. This expansion greatly enhanced the nationwide accessibility of top-flight baseball. The two new Havana-based teams, Industriales and Habana (renamed in the 70's to Metropolitanos), were similar to the old professional Cuban League rivals, Almendares and Habana in that Industriales, like Almendares, wore blue, while Habana/Metropolitanos, like Habana, wore red. However, after Industriales went on to capture four consecutive championships from 1963–66, they became known as the premier Cuban team. Metropolitanos after the 80's, on the other hand, was unable to be competitive and has failed to re-establish the rivalry; it is now considered a second-class team, where young players and fading veterans share playing time.

...
Wikipedia