Greg Mercer, Record staff

KITCHENER - If you want to go a little crazy during the Kitchener Panthers playoffs, go ahead. Stand, sing, dance and blow horns. The Cubans on the field will feel right at home.

The playoffs in Cuba’s National Series are a wild, noisy spectacle that is hard to explain to conservative Canadian baseball fans.

"In Cuba, it’s so crazy. Here, they sit quiet, like in church, " said pitcher Noelvis Entenza, speaking in Spanish through translator Leonardo Montes Sandino.

"At home, it’s a big party. They’re standing, dancing in their seats, every game. They can’t stop."

Entenza, one of four Cuban players on the Panthers roster, said one of the biggest adjustments to playing baseball in Canada was getting used to way fans watch the game here. Baseball in the north is a quieter, more reserved sport.

All four of these players, brought to Kitchener under a unique deal with the Cuban baseball federation, have decades of combined playoff experience in their country’s top league.

Shortstop Yorbis Borroto has won three national championships, while pitchers Miguel Lahera and Jonder Martinez have both won twice and Entenza has won once.

In Havana’s Estadio Latinoamericano, it’s common for boisterous crowds of 50,000 or more to pack into the stands. It’s so loud the players on the field can’t hear each other.

"You need to have an iron heart to play there, " Borroto said. "Sometimes, you have to throw a rock to get a teammate’s attention."

Noelvis laughs when describing going to a Toronto Blue Jays game for the first time and wondering why everyone was staying quietly in their seats.

The Cubans are hoping they can bring a little bit of their island’s passion for baseball as the Panthers start their post-season hunt.

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