• Submitted by: manso
• Sports
• 11 / 27 / 2010

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Saturday November 27, 2010.By Nelson Acosta. HAVANA, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Cuba will open  Edition 50 of its national baseball series on Sunday, needing to curb defections and regain its status as Olympic power.

Some 500 players divided into 16 teams will participate in the tournament of 90 matches agreed to be entered on stage qualifying until late March.

Industrial Reigning clash with Villa Clara in the opening series on Sunday in the Latin American Stadium, Havana City.

Directors and fans are willing to regain the glory of Cuba's national sport.

"We must do something about our baseball," said a former member of the Cuban team for the 1960, a coach today.

"The baseball we played was really hot. Now the technical level has dropped, in part by defections. It  will take time to be ready, "said the former athlete, who preferred to remain anonymous.

Baseball is a fever in Cuba, where amateur sport is considered a showcase of the social achievements of the socialist system.

The series is dedicated this year to the 50 anniversary of the adoption of socialism and the official poster is a picture of the revolutionary leader  Fidel Castro holding a bat in his military uniform. Cuba won three gold medals in baseball, the last in Athens 2004.

But in recent years, the Cuban players lost ground, falling to South Korea in final Beijing games 2008  and to the United States in the World Cup final 2009.

This year, the Cuban team lost to Dominican Republic in October at the FIBA Americas Championship in Puerto Rico and two weeks later this same team defeated the Netherlands in the final of the Intercontinental Cup in Taiwan.

Desertion, Removal and Returns

Part of the problem is attributed to the defection of players attracted by lucrative contracts in the Major Leagues of the United States, only 145 kilometers away.Cuba has reported the theft of talents as part of Washington attacks, his political enemy for almost half century.

Source: /mx.reuters.com/cubaheadlines'translation