competition against the world's best professional players was finally made available by the World Baseball Classic first held in March . In 2014, representation in the Caribbean Series, last made in 1960, was finally restored. Some other memorable events in the history of the Cuban national baseball system are the following: On 16 January and 25 January 1966, right-hander Aquino Abreu pitched back-to-back no-hitters (against Occidentals and Industriales), matching a feat accomplished by major-leaguer Johnny Vander Meer. On 13 August 1966 José Ramón López established an all-time season record of 309 strikeouts. Although López struck out 12 batters, he lost the game 2–0. On 12 April 1980, two players from the same team, Rey Vicente Anglada and Jorge Beltrán of Habana, hit grand slams in one inning. Remarkably, on the same day major leaguers Cecil Cooper and Don Money of the Milwaukee Brewers accomplished the same feat. In 1985 Lázaro Vargas of Industriales set the Cuban National Series record for consecutive-game hitting streak by hitting safely in 31 straight games. In 1990 all-time Cuban great Omar Linares hit better than .400 for the third time to win his third batting title. Linares is widely considered to be one of the greatest third basemen of all time. In March 1994 Lázaro Junco wins his eighth home run title. Junco retired with the career record of 405 home runs (later surpassed by Orestes Kindelán). On 28 March 1999 the Baltimore Orioles are the first Major League team in 40 years to play in Cuba, playing against the Cuba national baseball team before 55,000 fans in Latin American Stadium in Havana. In 2015, the Under-23 division of the Cuban National Series began its debut season, with its players being below 23 years of age. In 2022, INDER and the BFC officially ended the long monopoly of the National Series as the sole national baseball circuit, beginning that year the Cuban Elite League was launched as the country's fall baseball circuit with the NS now moved to the spring, in competition with Major League Baseball and the Mexican League. Emigrants A number of immigrants from Cuba (sometimes described as "defectors") have played for the major leagues. Immediately after the Cuban Revolution many of the former professional baseball players emigrated, but for the next 30 years relatively few left Cuba. Since 1991, however, a number of prominent Cuban baseball players have emigrated. See also Baseball