Jorge Luis Valdés was considered by many to be the best left-handed pitcher in the Cuban National Series. Valdés played baseball for 20 seasons in the National Series and represented the Cuban team for more than a decade. From a young age he emerged as a promising talent, and he became part of the Cuban national youth team when he was 16-years-old. His first success with the senior team came in 1982 when he won silver at the 1982 Central American and Caribbean Games in La Habana.
This was the beginning of an impressive international career that saw Valdés win a plethora of gold medals with the Cuban team including five at the Intercontinental Cup and four at the Baseball World Cup. He won three further golds at the Central American and Caribbean Games (1986, 1990, 1993), along with three golds at the Pan American Games (1983, 1987, 1991). In 1992 he was part of the team that won gold at the Barcelona Olympics with an 11–1 thrashing of Chinese Taipei in the tournament’s final.
Cuba