The close of the 53rd National Series of Cuban baseball was tinged by the high level of emotions of the games, but also by their low quality, emphasised in the area of pitching and also seen in the strategies of the managers as well as other sectors of this sports discipline.

Once more the island was at tenterhooks, attentive to each play, waiting for the outcome, finally jubilant for Pinar del Río, the honourable champion, the owner of a well-deserved title and celebrated by the fans who, like never before, surpassed the limits of the westernmost province, an unheard of event.

What changed in this season in relation to the previous one? What was new? Were backward steps taken or were there advances? Why did the majority of the island moved toward the green of Pinar del Río in the end?

The 53rd Series began with bad news and new configurations in some teams: the absence of José Dariel Abreu, Erisbel Arruebarruena and Osvaldo Arias were lethal for Cienfuegos. That was the team that suffered the most, but there were other notable absences – for diverse reasons – in Sancti Spíritus, Industriales, Las Tunas, Guantánamo, Villa Clara, Mayabeque.

The ballplayers who were missing in the mentioned teams not only lowered their level but also altered the balance of the Series, even when they passed on to other teams, like the case of Guantánamo shortstop Dainer Moreira, in the Matanzas team, the most favoured province, actually it should be said privileged, with the current movement of ballplayers.

Among the teams that got to the post season, only one of the four major ones was missing, Santiago de Cuba, undermined by the diaspora, the lesions and the insufficient renovation; its place was taken by Matanzas, turned into a multinational team. The rest, Industriales, Pinar del Río and Villa Clara, each one dragging to that stage elements that helped them, or sunk them.

Villa Clara strengthened some gaps with the reinforcements, but the impossibility of having its ace in the box, Freddy Asiel Alvarez, dampened too much their aspirations. The leader of the Matanzas pitchers received an unprecedented sanction, no matter how absurd and brutal: the victim received a punishment similar to that of the victimiser. It was a demolishing blow to the previous season’s champion who, in the same event, lost its star of the mound and saw the animator of his offensive, Ramón Lunar, out of the game.

In the Industriales team, the absence of Irait Chirino and Serguei Pérez, together with the going down of Stanley Hernández and Juan Carlos Torriente, weakened this team’s offensive and its structure as a team, even with the significant contribution of Yulieski Gourriel. Ever since the previous series, the manager tried out one group of players after the other, against logic and canon, but this year the mistakes were greater.

To top it off, the mentor of the Industriales team made mistakes for the second consecutive series when choosing pitchers he took as reinforcements.

Pinar del Río displayed a stable game, like the Matanzas team, throughout the series, led by a pitcher that was invincible, Yosvany Torres; his arrival to the semi-finals was never in danger; meanwhile, in the case of Industriales, a recovery in the second stage allowed them to reach the playoffs with great energy.

The Industriales-Pinar del Río semi-finals were atypical and disconcerting: with three consecutive victories, Industriales only needed one more, in the three remaining games, to go on to the grand finale. But they did not achieve it. Starting with the fifth game, from the controversial foul that became an out, the Pinar del Río team changed destiny and rewrote history with its courage.

Industriales was buried by a chain of mistakes, bad strategies, an anaemic offensive and, what’s most important, what they won’t forget: the opportunity they lost of finishing off, to check mate when they could, before their fans.

After an epic climb, Pinar del Río got to the grand finale, in Matanzas, with their moral on high. And that sustained it before a team that was waiting for them rested and with a ferocious thirst for championship inculcated by a manager who has never achieved it.

But Pinar del Río also got to Matanzas with the energy sent to them by millions of fans throughout Cuba, hoping that Alfonso Urquiola’s humility would defeat the arrogance of the powerful Victor Mesa. That was the bet that was at play for the first time in 53 years: the fans were defined against a manager that represents a great many things with which baseball lovers don’t agree with.

After Pinar del Río’s triumph in the second game, Matanzas’ favouritism went down the drain; it recovered when it equalled the actions in the fourth game, but sank in the infarcting fifth game, which anyone could have won, but divine justice tilted. Already in the sixth, Urquiola did not make the same mistake as Vargas and crushed his adversary.

It was a finale that was greatly followed, with delirious and respectful fans on both teams; hard-fought and emotive, but the quality of Cuban baseball showed its descent, with too many mistakes in pitching and an erratic leadership, especially by the Matanzas manager.

The finale and the semi-finals also suffered because of umpiring errors that decided games and the absurdity of the foul/out that should have never happened because it was not previewed in the regulation as it was applied.

Though no one can deny the merit of Pinar del Río, which played better, displayed more courage and its manager was more restrained, it taught greater good sense and aplomb. That also is wisdom. And that is awarded. (2014)