Sport Baseball No. of teams 16 Most recent
champion(s) Granma (1st Title) | Founded 1961 Country Cuba Most titles Industriales (12) | |
 | ||
The Cuban National Series (Spanish: Serie Nacional de Béisbol) is the primary domestic amateur baseball competition in Cuba. Formed after the dissolution of the Cuban League in the wake of the Cuban Revolution, the Series is a part of the Cuban national baseball system.
League structure
Since 1993, the league has had 16 teams: one representing each province, and two for the city of Havana. Each team is made up of players from the province it represents.
In Havana, most of the top tier players take the field for Industriales, traditionally the strongest team in the league. Other typically strong teams include those from Santiago de Cuba, Pinar del Río and Villa Clara.
The 90-game regular season stretches from November until February, and culminates with an eight team tournament to decide the league champion.
Since 2008-2009 championship, the Cuban League has been reorganized - qualification is by zones, and not in groups as it has been the last 15 years.
In the 2011-2012 series, there were 17 competing teams, since Havana Province was split into two provinces: Artemisa Province and Mayabeque Province. Thus, the Western League had 9 teams. The Artemisa team were named "Hunters" (Spanish "Cazadores"), and the Mayabeque team "Hurricanes" (Spanish "huracanes").
The Cuban National Series is the beginning of the preparation for all the commitments that the team Cuba has in the summer. The Cuban National Preselection is selected from the Series and Havana is the site for practicing before going to the competition. Sometimes more than one team is selected.
Beginning with the 2012-13 season, the Metropolitanos, long seen as the "farm team" of Havana's other team, powerhouse Industriales, will no longer field a team. This brings the number of competing teams back down to 16.
To accommodate the 2013 World Baseball Classic, the league will take a six-week break after the February 3rd All-Star Game. The Series Nacional will play a shortened 45 game season, with all 16 teams competing in a single table format (doing away with the regular two division format). The bottom 8 seeded teams will then play amongst themselves in the consolation round, while the top 8 seeded teams will do the same for the championship.
The designated hitter is used in all games.