1977–78 Cuban National Series

Baseball season in Cuba 1977–78 Cuban National SeriesSerie Nacional de Béisbol 1977–78 Cuban National Series Baseball 51 18 Regular season Champion Vegueros (36–14) SNB 1976–77 Cuban National Series 1976–77 1978–79 Cuban National Series 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 gamesA team facing each of the other 17 teams in the league 3 times each yields a schedule of 51 games. (although some teams played as few as 46 games). Restructuring thumb|right|upright=1.2|Cuba's provinces as of December 1976 Many teams were reconstituted to align with Cuba's restructuring into 14 provinces and one special municipality, announced in December 1976.https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-columbian-cubas-citizens-to-have-a/131074302/ Cuba's citizens to have a say James Nelson Goodsell The Christian Science Monitor The Columbian Vancouver, Washington 47 December 12, 1976 September 2, 2023 newspapers.com Provinces of Cuba 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: Ciudad de La Habana Province (the city of Havana): Industriales and Metropolitanos Pinar del Río Province: Vegueros and Forestales Matanzas Province: 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,September 2023 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 1½ Camagüey 30 21 .588 6½ Forestales (Pinar del Río) 29 21 .580 7 Metropolitanos (Havana) 28 21 .571 7½ Villa Clara 28 21 .571 7½ Cienfuegos 29 22 .568 7½ Guantánamo 28 22 .560 8 Ciego de Ávila 26 23 .530 9 Citricultores (Matanzas) 27 24 .529 9½ Granma 25 25 .500 11 Santiago de Cuba 25 25 .500 11 La Habana 21 26 .446 13½ Holguín 22 28 .440 14 Sancti Spíritus 20 30 .400 16 Henequeneros (Matanzas) 16 30 .347 18 Las Tunas 12 37 .244 23½ Isla de Pinos 10 41 .196 26½ Source:http://www.granma.cu/granmad/eventos/49serie/z-series.html 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 Notes References Further reading http://www.radiococo.cu/cronologia/1978.htm Cronología: 1978 2006-10-05 Spanish https://web.archive.org/web/20050225131709/http://www.radiococo.cu/cronologia/1978.htm February 25, 2005 (Note - text is printed in a white font on a white background, depending on browser used.) Category:Cuban National Series seasons Cuban National Series Cuban National Series Cuban National Series Cuban National Series