CAMAGÜEY.-This week Camagüey's dream of being included again in the postseason of the National Series fell to the ground. The fragility of depending on others to reach the qualifying ticket ruined the painful rupture that leaves players and fans heartbroken and the specialized press, which counted the Bulls in all pre-competition predictions, speechless.

Our previous issue gave readers a statistical compendium that allows a cold analysis of the team's actions in the regular season, but today we propose to delve into some elements that did not go to the score sheets and ruined the final result.

As Miguel Borroto said on this page 14 days ago, the relief pitching was our weakest section, marked by seven important absences in the staff. However, given this problem, the management of human resources was not the best on the part of Pedro Luis Lazo and the technicians under his command, as some pitchers were given excess confidence and few opportunities to others. Similarly, it was a tendency to expect the streamer to explode loudly to get it out of the box, when it was best to simplify the missions in the relays. Let me explain with an example: in the so-called hinge game against La Isla in Cristóbal Labra, Yormani Socarrás was given the task of saving in the ninth and did not succeed, allowing the tie, and after his teammates took advantage in extrainnings, management kept him on the mound until the last dire consequences. In the well-worn “little book” of modern baseball, these strategies do not exist and, on the contrary, formulas are proposed to counteract the shortage of stellar pitchers, such as bullpenning, in which each pitcher is assigned an inning or less, making possible the preparation of the same before the batters in turn and the sharing of responsibility. Here it is worth making an aside with the impact of Professor José Manuel Cortina, a kind of magician who is leaving an important mark in our province with his skills as an arm retriever and his invaluable technical teachings. If it were not for him, he would have to subtract the victories of José Ramón Rodríguez and the very rapid recoveries of Alejandro León and Carlos Pérez would not have been possible.

As for batting, it opened little to recriminate, but it is worth reflecting on the abuse of a play in danger of extinction in the best leagues in the world, the bunt of the sacrifice ball, an action to which Borroto and his collaborators went to exhaustion. . Perhaps for a low-powder batch like Artemisa's this would be justified, but not in ours, which remained in the top three of all offensive departments all the time. In one game, the same amount of touch sacrifices was used as those made by the New York Yankees in the last regular season of the Major Leagues. On defense, the numbers do not fully reflect the good work the boys did, as the consolidation of the central line (Luis Gómez, Yandy Yanes, Humberto Bravo and Leonel Moas) fills everyone with hope for the next decade.

So why is Camagüey not in the playoffs of the 61st National Baseball Series? We just didn't have the claw to strike when the opponent was on the ropes. The mentality of splitting the weekends and winning the subseries of three guaranteed us to finish with a positive balance of wins and losses, but in a season as close as this, it was not enough. Teams such as those of Guantánamo or Ciego de Ávila had to be swept away at their worst moments and, on the contrary, we were dominated by inexperienced young people. We were urged to finish dominating the private commitments against direct rivals such as Industriales and Pinar del Río and we did not succeed either. Squads with less quality in their pitching corps such as Cienfuegos, Industriales, Granma and Santiago de Cuba are at the party because they knew how to win over their deficiencies.

I have read on social networks dozens of comments "asking for the head" of Borroto after this failure, but I do not think it is the solution. Let us remember that in the two series prior to the arrival of the Hierarch, the bullfighting troop anchored in position 12 of the table, always with negative inventories. This editor would bet again on an experienced helmsman, who must now head a deep analysis of what happened to change everything and all those who attempted against the realization of the dream. He has in his hands a talented generation like few others, who have already seen that they can aspire to the title of Cuba, that is why we must be more demanding every day. You have to manage better, but you also have to think and fight more on the ground. Now we will wait for the selection of reinforcements to enjoy the triumphs of our boys with another jacket, and then begin again to conceive of our own success.

Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez