Anatomy of another irremediable defeat

After two weeks, the third edition of the Premier12 baseball ended with a truly unexpected news: Chinese Taipei won the trophy after blanking Japan 4-0 in the final of the event.

After eight consecutive victories, Japan lost its undefeated record in front of a large part of its fans among the 41,827 people who gathered at the Tokyo Dome to enjoy the Premier12 final. I think it was a great event of nations, probably the edition with the highest level and rivalry. The support of the fans was surprising, especially in the venues of Asia. I have been enjoying all these events for many years and I have covered most of them from Cuba.

Part of the idea that I wanted to do for you here at Inside was to bring the whole perspective of the Cuban team in its history throughout each edition of the Premier12. The passage of Hurricane Rafael through the western part of Cuba and the damage it left in Havana irremediably delayed the pace that was expected. I haven't stopped working in my last two weeks and I still have a lot to do. So I preferred to enjoy the event until the end by watching as many games as possible.

I know that many were disappointed with the performance of Team Cuba. I also think that, once again, it seemed like that team had enough potential to put in a better performance. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. We've talked a lot about this never-ending story of Team Cuba's losses, and I think we still have a lot to talk about on that. But the point here is that this is not at all surprising. This third edition of the Premier12 has been the 16th event in which Team Cuba has failed to record more wins than losses.

Over the past decade, Cuba's national teams have won only two titles: the gold medal at the Central American Games in Veracruz in 2014, coached by Victor Mesa. Three months and 19 days later, coached by Alfonso Urquiola, the Cuban team won the 2015 Caribbean Series in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Since then, Cuba has not been able to win a single tournament. In the last 10 events, they have allowed more runs (226) than they have scored (225). The problem that has triggered all this result has multiple reasons. None of them are unknown to Cuban baseball fans.