If All the Baseball Teams Play All against All, Why There Must Be Two Zones in Cuba?
February 18, 2012, 6:00 pm  

Hernán Bosch
hrbosch@enet.cu
Translation: Ernesto Gutierrez

Over two years ago, at the beginning of the 49 Baseball Championship in Cuba, I published in this and other websites of the country a commentary entitled ¿Por que no los ocho mejores a los “play off”? (Why Not the Top Eeight Teams to Playoffs?), which approached the structure of this tournament, recognized as the best entertainment for most of the Cubans.

In that article I wrote an introduction and gave arguments that I will reiterate in this baseball season because I think they fits more at this moment for the characteristics of the championship.

I said then: "Only a miracle - and no one expected that- could make possible to see the best eight teams at the "playoffs" of the National Season."

And, when one take a look at the standings in both zones the results might be described as alarming.

It is enough to say that that if the qualifying stage ends with the current positions of the teams, in the eastern region two teams that have better results than the fourth place in west (Pinar del Rio), would stay out of the "playoffs".

The first case is Granma (28 wins and 26 defeats) and Guantanamo (27-27), both better than Pinar del Rio, which has a negative balance (27-28), despite Granma and Guantanamo are located in the fifth and sixth places in the eastern zone.

The main argument defended to keep the two "zones" is that that in the end a team from the west and one from east will fight for the gold.

If the teams play by the system "all against all", in which each team faces six times the current 16 opponents, the best eight teams would be representing the territory they represent and that would be the best.

The "rivalry" loses force more and more, because since the currect structure was applied in the season 1977-78, the teams of the East stored more triumphs than those of the West, a situation that has increased in recent championships and particularly in the current, in which the West, despite having a team more (nine), have won five games less than the eastern teams, which are still eight, (224 for the West and 229 for the the East).

But regardless of that imbalance, the reality is that it is unfair that if they play an equal number of matches to qualify, the best four team of each zone go the playoffs and not the teams that obtained the best result in the season.

Cuba is one from East to West. So, it is reasonable that one day two teams from the same region can fight for the gold of the national championship.

The only really fair thing is that the top eight teams must go to the playoffs to define the best in fight for the gold regardless where they are from.