Latinoamericano Stadium
The colossus of ''El Cerro'' describes the feats of four teams of Cuban professional baseball: Almendares, Habana, Cienfuegos and Marianao. On October 26th, 1946, it was only surpassed in capacity by five North American facilities: Yankee Stadium (75,000 people), Detroit Tigers (58 000), Polo Grounds, New York (56 000); Wrigley Field, Chicago (50,000) and Fenway Park, Boston (40 000).
World amateur baseball series have been held at the Latinoamericano Stadium for some years and in 1949 the Caribbean Series was inaugurated. It was also one of the headquarters of the International League of Florida with Havana Cubans and Cuban Sugar Kings, a unique team of the International League Triple A, which won the championship in 1959.
Since its foundation to date, it is considered the most popular sports facility of Cuban sports. Several regional and world tournaments have taken place there, where Fidel threw the first ball together with Commander Camilo Cienfuegos. On November 26th, 1952, the revolutionary leader José Antonio Echeverría and some students rushed the field to protest. On December 4th, 1955, students again, this time led by Juan Nuiry, expressed their protests. It was a challenge between Havana and Almendares; again the referee Maestri faced the soldiers and supported students.
In the program of this colossus of 70 years were stars like Adolfo Luque, Conrado Marrero and Martín Dihigo; Roberto Ortíz, Orestes Minoso, Camilo Pascual and Pedro Ramos. So were Pedro Chávez, Manuel Alarcón, Agustín Marquetti, Luis Casanova, Omar Linares, Braudilio Vinent, Pedro Luis Lazo ... among others.
A colossus that inspires love and captivates with its immensity, beauty, virtuosity. This is the Latinoamericano Stadium in Havana. Congratulations colossus. I say no more because the immensity of your stature makes small the words of this journalist.