1998-1999 Cuban National League
From BR Bullpen
The 1998-1999 season was the thirty-eighth season of Cuba's national baseball system.
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[edit] Serie Nacional
In a surprise win, Santiago de Cuba takes the 38th Serie Nacional title over heavily favoured Industriales. The team, managed by future national team manager Higinio Vélez, finished fourth in the Zona Oriental – two games over .500. It was the team's first title in a decade.
Santiago de Cuba won a close 3 – 2 quarterfinal series against number one seed Granma, a team that won ten games more than the eventual champions in the regular season. The avispas then defeated Guantánamo 4 – 2 in the semifinals earn the right to represent the Zona Oriental against Industriales. Meanwhile the azules were the top team in the Serie Nacional with a 58 – 32 record. The team then swept La Habana in the quarterfinals and won their semifinal series, 4 – 3, against Isla de la Juventud in one of the greatest series in Cuban history. Industriales then looked as if it would steamroll over Santiago de Cuba by winning the first three games of the best-of-seven series. Santiago de Cuba then won the next four games to take the title. Game six and seven were won with complete games by Ormari Romero and Norge Luis Vera at Havana's Estadio Latinoamericano. The semifinal and final series featured wooden bats donated by Major League Baseball after the Baltimore Orioles played an exhibition series against the Cuban national team. The series also interrupted postseason play.
Isla de la Juventud's Michel Enríquez hit an all-time record 152 base hits, and set two aluminum bat era records for runs scored with 81 and 35 doubles. Other era records set include 12 triples by Yasser Gómez, now with Industriales, and 89 base-on-balls by Matanzas's Juan Manrique. The league's leader in batting average was Yobal Dueñas of Pinar del Río who had 141 hits in 337 at-bats for a .418 average. Omar Linares misses most of the regular season due to leg injuries, but recovered enough to play in the exhibition series versus the Orioles.
José Ibar of La Habana follows up his 20 win season with 18 wins. Ibar is once again the league's top workhorse with 193.0 innings pitched and leads the league with 158 strikeouts. Granma's Ciro S. Licea – the losing pitcher in the national team's lone defeat a year earlier – is the league leader in earned run average at 1.85 with 38 earned runs in 185 innings pitched. Licea also leads the league with 16 complete games nad 7 shutouts – both aluminum bat era records. Amaury Sanit of Industriales appeared in 39 games, 38 of which were in relief – both leading the league and era records. Teenager Maels Rodríguez of Sancti Spíritus makes an inauspicious début of the league leader board with 69 base-on-balls.
[edit] Standings
- Bold indicates Zona champion; Italics indicates Serie Nacional champion
[edit] Zona Occidental
| Grupo A | Grupo B | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | G | W | L | WPCT | GB | |||||||||
| Pinar del Río | 90 | 53 | 37 | 0.589 | -.- | Industriales | 90 | 58 | 32 | 0.644 | -.- | |||
| Isla de la Juventud | 90 | 52 | 38 | 0.578 | 1.0 | La Habana | 90 | 51 | 39 | 0.567 | 7.0 | |||
| Matanzas | 90 | 40 | 50 | 0.444 | 13.0 | Cienfuegos | 90 | 42 | 48 | 0.467 | 16.0 | |||
| Metropolitanos | 90 | 34 | 56 | 0.378 | 19.0 | Sancti Spíritus | 90 | 33 | 57 | 0.367 | 25.0 | |||
[edit] Zona Oriental
| Grupo C | Grupo D | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | G | W | L | WPCT | GB | Team | G | W | L | WPCT | GB | |||
| Villa Clara | 90 | 51 | 39 | 0.567 | -.- | Granma | 90 | 56 | 34 | 0.622 | -.- | |||
| Ciego de Ávila | 90 | 41 | 49 | 0.456 | 10.0 | Guantánamo | 90 | 50 | 40 | 0.556 | 6.0 | |||
| Camagüey | 90 | 40 | 50 | 0.444 | 11.0 | Santiago de Cuba | 90 | 46 | 44 | 0.511 | 10.0 | |||
| Las Tunas | 90 | 30 | 60 | 0.333 | 21.0 | Holguín | 90 | 43 | 47 | 0.478 | 13.0 | |||
[edit] Playoffs
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals | |||||||||||
| OCC1 | Industriales | 3 | |||||||||||
| OCC4 | La Habana | 0 | |||||||||||
| OCC1 | Industriales | 4 | |||||||||||
| Occidental | |||||||||||||
| OCC3 | Isla de la Juventud | 3 | |||||||||||
| OCC2 | Pinar del Río | 2 | |||||||||||
| OCC3 | Isla de la Juventud | 3 | |||||||||||
| OCC1 | Industriales | 3 | |||||||||||
| OTE4 | Santiago de Cuba | 4 | |||||||||||
| OTE1 | Granma | 2 | |||||||||||
| OTE4 | Santiago de Cuba | 3 | |||||||||||
| OTE4 | Santiago de Cuba | 4 | |||||||||||
| Oriental | |||||||||||||
| OTE3 | Guantánamo | 2 | |||||||||||
| OTE2 | Villa Clara | 1 | |||||||||||
| OTE3 | Guantánamo | 3 | |||||||||||
[edit] All-Star Game
The fourteenth Juego de las Estrellas (All-Star Game) was held at Güines in La Habana on February 18, 1999. In the game, Oriente defeated Occidentales by a score of 1 to 0. Oriente had 5 hits to Occidentales's 4, while the errors were 1 to 0 in favor of Oriente. The winning pitcher was Wualberto Quesada and the losing pitcher was Carlos Yanes. Danel Castro had the game's only home run.
[edit] Leaders
- Bold indicates either wooden bat record or aluminum bat record (1976-1977 to 1998-1999), Italics indicate Serie Nacional record
[edit] Batting
[edit] Pitching
[edit] Award Winners
The Most Valuable Player (Jugadores más Valiosos) was Michel Enríquez a third baseman with Isla de la Juventud. The Most Valuable Pitcher (Lanzadores más Valiosos) was José Ibar of La Habana. There was no recipient of the Rookie of the Year Award (Novatos del Año).
[edit] Sources
- (March 17, 2004). "Cronología: 1999 (Spanish)". Radiococo. Radiococo. Retrieved October 29, 2006.
- (March 22, 2004). "Tabla de Posiciones de la XXXVIII serie 1999 (Spanish)". Radiococo. Radiococo. Retrieved October 29, 2006.
- (November 18, 2005). "Guía Digital 2005-06". Guía Oficial de Béisbol 2005 (Digital). Instituto Nacional de Deportes, Educación Física y Recreación. Retrieved October 29, 2006.
- Peter C. Bjarkman. A History of Cuban Baseball, 1864–2006. : McFarland, 2007. ISBN 0786428295
