At the age of 46 and with 27 seasons under his belt, Frederich Cepeda became, on Saturday, the first player to reach 2,600 hits in national tournaments of Cuban baseball, a record unprecedented in the history of the sport on the island.
The historic unstoppable player arrived at the Victoria de Girón stadium during the first game of the IV Elite League, facing pitcher José Carlos Quesada from the Cocodrilos de Matanzas, according to the weekly publication Escambray.
The player from Sancti Spíritus, known as the "Gallo Mayor," is not competing in this tournament with his usual team, the Gallos de Sancti Spíritus, but has been called up as a reinforcement for the Huracanes de Mayabeque. He has taken this opportunity to continue building on a legacy that already places him among the greatest batters of all time in domestic baseball.
Cepeda had concluded the last National Series with 2,599 hits, according to the records of statistician Benigno Daquinta, and he needed only the first game of the new competition to break the barrier.
Interestingly, his follower in the historical ranking of hits, Yordanis Samón—with 2,567 hits—wears the same Mayabeque uniform in this tournament.
The mark of 2,600 hits is just the latest in a series of records accumulated in recent years. In November 2025, Cepeda became the new historical leader in runs batted in in the National Series, reaching 1,513 RBIs, surpassing the 1,511 of Santiago native Orestes Kindelán with a three-run homer — the 383rd home run of his professional career.
In April 2025, the player from Sancti Spíritus was crowned king of hits by surpassing Danel Castro's record, which stood at 2,502 hits.
Now he is aiming for another milestone: he needs just 17 more runs scored to reach 1,600, a figure that has only been achieved by the Havana player Enrique Díaz, with 1,638 in 26 seasons.
All of this is happening while Cuban baseball is on the brink of its worst historical crisis: blackouts lasting up to 20 hours interrupt games, stadiums in ruins, teams lacking food and basic resources, and a massive exodus of talent.
Almost 40 Cuban prospects signed with Major League organizations in the 2024-2025 period, Cuba was eliminated in the first round of the 2026 World Classic and was excluded from that year's Caribbean Series.
In that context of institutional decline, Cepeda's relevance at the age of 46 is even more extraordinary.
The player himself, however, prefers to look ahead rather than at the record books: "I am very happy for the opportunity to be back in the Elite and I am very grateful to Mayabeque for choosing me. The records will come with time and, thank God, I have been able to stay on the field with results over the years. The main goal is to help the team; that is my focus, and the records will come as the games go by."
Filed under: