1977–78 Cuban National Series Explained

1977–78 Cuban National Series
League:Cuban National Series
Sport:Baseball
No Of Games:51
No Of Teams:18
Season:Regular season
Season Champ Name:Champion
Season Champs:Vegueros (36–14)
Seasonslistnames:SNB
Prevseason Link:1976–77 Cuban National Series
Prevseason Year:1976–77
Nextseason Link:1978–79 Cuban National Series
Nextseason Year:1978–79

The 17th season of the Cuban National Series saw Vegueros of Pinar del Río Province win the title, finishing with a slim lead over Industriales of Havana. The makeup of the league was directly influenced by the administrative restructuring of the provinces of Cuba. The league expanded from 14 to 18 teams, and the regular season increased from 39 to 51 games (although some teams played as few as 46 games).

Restructuring

Many teams were reconstituted to align with Cuba's restructuring into 14 provinces and one special municipality, announced in December 1976.[1] The league expanded to 18 teams: 11 provinces fielded a single team each, three provinces fielded two teams each, and the special administrative area of Isla de Pinos (later renamed Isla de la Juventud) fielded a team.

The three provinces fielding two teams each were:

Vegueros and Forestales

Citricultores and Henequeneros

The 1977–78 season was also the first in which aluminum bats were used league-wide replacing the wooden bats, and was also the first in which the designated hitter was used, replacing the pitcher's turn at bat, following an off-season decision by the Baseball Federation of Cuba and by the National Sports Institution, following the lead of the American League of Major League Baseball four years before.

Standings

Team W L Pct. GB
Vegueros (Pinar del Río) 36 14 .720 -
Industriales (Havana) 35 16 .686
30 21 .588
Forestales (Pinar del Río) 29 21 .580 7
Metropolitanos (Havana) 28 21 .571
28 21 .571
29 22 .568
28 22 .560 8
26 23 .530 9
Citricultores (Matanzas) 27 24 .529
25 25 .500 11
25 25 .500 11
21 26 .446 13½
22 28 .440 14
20 30 .400 16
Henequeneros (Matanzas) 16 30 .347 18
12 37 .244 23½
10 41 .196 26½
Source:[2]

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. News: Cuba's citizens to have a say . James Nelson . Goodsell . . . . 47 . December 12, 1976 . September 2, 2023 . newspapers.com.
  2. Web site: Las 40 primeras Series Nacionales. Spanish. Granma. https://web.archive.org/web/20141227032744/http://www.granma.cu/granmad/eventos/49serie/z-series.html. December 27, 2014. live.