The best is left for last

Last Thursday afternoon was a very busy day in the 63rd National Series of Cuban baseball: Santiago de Cuba vs. Camagüey, Las Tunas vs. Holguín and Sancti Spíritus vs. Industriales completed midweek sweeps. And, in this five-game-a-week schedule, that means they guaranteed victory in their respective series this year.

The Hunters of Artemisa had another great moment against Matanzas, leaving them on the field for the second consecutive day. Last Wednesday's victory in the bottom of the 12th inning was due to a throwing error by second baseman Yadil Mujica in an attempt to complete a double play. Yesterday, Dayán García hit a walk off home run to achieve 6-5 success in the bottom of the ninth inning.

After so much revealing news, the best seemed to be left for last, as the Vegueros of Pinar del Río were trying to come back in the bottom of the seventh against the Elefantes of Cienfuegos. The game was stopped due to lack of lighting or, what is the same in Cuban baseball, due to darkness, and resumed this Friday morning starting at 10:00 AM. In the end, the Elephants took the victory 9-7 in 10 innings. Three consecutive errors by the Vegueros defense were key for the Elephants to score four runs at the start of the tenth. And then left-hander Islay Sotolongo gave up just two runs. Yasser Julio González was the last out of the game, flying out to first with the bases loaded.

The Vegueros had been dominated by right-hander Raicol Suárez, one of the most underrated pitchers this season. A day earlier, Pinar del Río had made headlines by beating the Elefantes de Cienfuegos 11-4.

With another demonstration of its offensive power, Pinar del Río reached 40 victories in 59 games. And that is precisely the big story here: it is the first time that a team has reached 40 wins in its first 59 games during seasons where 16 teams played 75 games in the regular phase.

The previous record belonged to the Alazanes de Granma led by Carlos Martí in the 60th National Series, who recorded a record of 39-20.

The Vegueros had not won at least 40 of their first 59 games in a season since 2002, when they started with a 41-18 record under Jorge Fuentes. That was only the third time that a team from Pinar del Río managed to obtain 40 victories in a period of 59 games.

So I was remembering everything that generated the dominance of that Pinar del Río team that led the 2002 regular season. Do you remember how they did it? Who were your main players? How did the Vegueros get to the postseason and then what happened?

With hopes that yesterday's game would resume, I began writing about that Pinar del Río team in 2002 and some of my memories of the main players under legendary manager Jorge Fuentes. Pinar del Río had a great teamwork, combining veteran players with talents of a new generation. I invite you to take this trip down memory lane to return to Pinar del Río's dominant 2002 regular season:

Catchers

Yosvany Madera: He averaged .342 slugging that year, which did not mean a great offensive contribution, and he was also caught stealing on seven of his eight attempts. Batting average was not the great revelation of Madera's talent, but defense was. The power of his arm was amazing. In 357 ⅓ innings on defense, Madera caught stealing 17 runners in 29 attempts. Yes, that brings us up to a dominant 59% caught stealing, an absolutely unthinkable average for a league where there were still a few clever stealers per team.