Iday Abreu Ruiz

Cuban ballplayer. He made his debut as a pitcher in the XXIX National Baseball Series with the Cienfuegos team and continued playing for that squad until his retirement in 2003.

He was a silver medalist at the Youth World Championship held in Canada in 1989. He participated in thirteen series as a player and starting in 2008 in the XLVII National Baseball Series he was appointed director of the Cienfuegos team.

He was born in Cruces, Las Villas, son of Fela and Celestino. He began at the School of Sports Initiation in 1983 where he remained until 1986 always as a pitcher.

In 1987 he continued his studies at the provincial ESPA in the Youth category with his coach Rolando Macías until he reached National Series as a Cienfuegos pitcher.

He participated in the National School Games in the 11-12 and 13-14 age categories. He later graduated from university with a degree in Physical Culture.

In 1989 he obtained the silver medal at the Youth World Championship held in Canada. Starting in 1989 he joined the Cienfuegos squad until his retirement from active baseball.

After retiring he became a coach for the 11-12 category in his native Cruces and was later appointed municipal methodologist.

Between 2005 and 2008 he served a mission in Venezuela, where he was appointed manager of the amateur team from Barinas which he managed to place in third position after having received it in 24th place.

Starting in 2008 in the XLVII National Baseball Series he became director of his former squad, with a new very talented generation that soon achieved the best historical results for that team in National Series: From 14th place in his debut as director he took them to third place in the 2010-2011 and 2012-2013 seasons. However, the departure from the country of important stars of the team, the retirement of others and other problems caused the team to collapse in the LIII Series and fail to qualify for the second phase after a new change of structure.

The native of Cruces is the second manager with the most seasons in his territory, with six—all consecutive—. Iday achieved 282 victories, which, categorically, makes him the manager with the most wins in the Cienfuegos team.

In the so-called Gold Series, the same one won by Pinar del Río under the leadership of Alfonso Urquiola, Abreu guided his team to a historic third place and in doing so set a new record for the province, with 59 games won. Two years later he matched the bronze medal, with three fewer successes than in Series 50, and that last result further strengthened the opinion that the 48-year-old coach had sufficient credentials to be considered the best manager in Cienfuegos history in the National Series. He had achieved twice what nine directors could not accomplish on any occasion.

Of course, the merit of two bronze medals, four postseasons and an equal number of consecutive contests with more than 50 victories is not exclusive to the native of Cruces. He had the enormous privilege of directing figures who played in national teams or reached the Major Leagues after leaving the Island, such as the cases of Norberto González, Noelvys Entenza, Erisbel Arruebarrena, José Dariel Abreu, Jorge Hernández, Yoan Moncada, Yasiel Puig, Osvaldo Arias, among others.

After 2014 Abreu remained involved with baseball, as manager of his municipality Cruces in the southern Provincial Series.

In 2019 he traveled to El Salvador to develop baseball there. He directed the Hielo Polar squad in the Sub 21 Cup and was one of four coaches in the National League, the number one circuit in that country.

He was in charge of the Halcones team and the rest of the managers were Nicaraguan Jorge Luis Avellán (Shopping Center), Venezuelan Jesús Cartagena (Santa Tecla) and Nicaraguan-Salvadoran Roger Barberena (Águilas de la Utec). The championship stopped in mid-March due to the red alert decreed by the Salvadoran government due to the new coronavirus.

In the 2022 season Iday was hired in Italy as a coach for the youth categories at the Godo Baseball club.