Baseball in Spain
Baseball began relatively early in Spain thanks to the descendants of immigrants from Cuba. They brought the sport along with them when Cuba ceased to be a Spanish Colony.[1][2] The heyday of baseball in Spain was in the 1950s and 1960s.[3] Owing to mass-interest in football (soccer) many baseball clubs didn't survive into the 1970s. The Spanish public's massive shift in focus was triggered mainly by the introduction of multiple TV channels that focused mainly on broadcasting the soccer matches of "La Liga", the professional First Division Spanish League. One of the few survivors was the CB Viladecans, whose field was officially used during the 1992 Summer Olympics.
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The Spanish baseball league is divided into divisions. The top teams play in the División de Honor. In each division, a team plays all other teams twice, once at home and once away, and two matches in the same day, during the regular season. There are no playoffs. The top four teams at the end of the season play in the Copa del Rey. The champion and the cupwinner play in the various European Cup.
The Spanish league teams compete in Europe under CEB most notably in the Baseball Champions League and CEB cup.
The Spanish teams also compete in a domestic cup competition each year, called the Copa del Rey de Beisbol.
Current hierarchical divisional breakdowns
- División de Honor (one group of 10 teams)
- Primera División (one group of 6 teams)
Each year, the last qualified of División de Honor is relegated to Primera División and the champion of Primera is promoted to División de Honor.
Also, the ninth qualified of Honor and the runner-up of Primera, plays a best-of-five games play-off. The winner will play at División de Honor the next season.
For a list of teams, see List of baseball clubs in Spain
Other competitions
- Copa del Rey de Beisbol
- Spain national baseball team