Armando Capiró and Rogelio García Among Those Inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Matanzas

January 1, 2022

The outstanding Cuban baseball players Armando Capiró and Rogelio García are among the new inductees to the Palmar de Junco Hall of Fame, located in the iconic baseball stadium of the same name, in the western province of Matanzas.

According to a report from the Cuban News Agency (ACN), baseball historian and writer Alfredo Santana said at a press conference that both Capiró and García deserved the distinction in the category that encompasses players who played on the Island after 1962, after surpassing the required 75% of votes.

In the section for players with prominence before that date, former player Andrés Antonio "Haitiano" González was admitted to the Hall of Immortals of baseball in Matanzas, while Mariano Álvarez, a distinguished shortstop and pioneer of the National Series in Cuba, received the support of the Veterans Committee, according to ACN's account.

Capiró was one of the most renowned home run hitters during the early National Series of baseball in Cuba. The outstanding outfielder shined with the capital city teams, was the first to hit more than 20 home runs in a season, and to reach one hundred home runs after professional tournaments were abolished on the Island.

For his part, García, known by the nickname "El Ciclón de Ovas" –for his native town in the province of Pinar del Río–, stood out for being one of the best pitchers of his era. For a long time he was among the leading pitchers of the Cuban national team, and led in strikeouts for seven seasons between 1976 and 1988, four of them consecutively.

The Hall of Fame in Matanzas Continues to Grow

The agency notes that on this occasion, former pitcher and recently deceased Andrés Ayón and commentator Roberto Pacheco, linked to sports broadcasting, and especially baseball, for more than half a century, deserved special recognition.

It was also announced that the newly elected members will be incorporated into the hall on February 6, during a ceremony in which Pedro José Rodríguez, Julio Germán Fernández, Zoilo Versalles, and Roberto Barbón will also be honored, inducted in 2020 but who were unable to receive the same tribute due to limitations imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The most recent is the sixth induction to the Palmar de Junco Hall of Fame, adjacent to the stadium of the same name –the oldest one still in use– which coincidentally on December 27, but 147 years ago, hosted what is considered the first official game of baseball in Cuba.

That day the teams from Havana and Matanzas faced off on the grass of the park in what is now the Pueblo Nuevo neighborhood. The game, which had umpires and a scorer, was played under the rules that existed then and was reported by the Cuban press of the 19th century, which published the box score.

Before the emergence of the Palmar de Junco Hall of Fame, there was a similar hall for Cuban baseball in Cuba, which was established on October 21, 1939 and held inductions until 1960. In 2014 its refoundation was relaunched with the selection of 10 new members, but the project was frozen shortly after by the National Baseball Commission (CNB).

Yovani Aragón, who headed the CNB at the time, acknowledged to OnCuba that the Hall of Fame was "a pending matter" and argued that its mechanisms needed to be refined "from an institutional point of view, so that the Hall of Fame is not up in the air, without order and without legal backing."

However, so far Cuban baseball athletes, specialists, and fans continue to wait for the Hall to reopen its doors, while neither the Inder, the Cuban Baseball Federation, nor the CNB have spoken on the matter again. In the face of this silence, the one at Palmar de Junco has continued to do justice from Matanzas to the immortals of baseball in that territory and throughout the nation.