Baseball in Puerto Rico
By the 1949-50 season, several new ballparks were built, each containing 6,000 or more seats. The largest new stadium was Ponce's Estadio Francisco Montaner with 9,718 seats. Montaner has the distinction of being the first stadium in Puerto Rico that installed an artificial surface field. The installation of lights, which allowed for night games, further boosted stadium attendances. The Stadium was named to honor Francisco "Paquito" Montaner, one of the greatest Puerto Rican pitchers of all times.
Bahía Blanca
Facilities for playing football, tennis, rugby, golf, indoor swimming, indoor and outdoor basketball and some other sports are easily available throughout the area.
There are two large indoor basketball stadiums with about 3000 to 3500 seats each and three important football stadiums close to the city centre, the largest one with facilities for hosting about 15,000 people. There is one golf club with three courts of 9 holes each, driving range and putting green where courtesy for visitant players is observed. Two more golf courses are available in the area, one in a country club and the other in Puerto Belgrano.
Since the 1950s, "Bahía" has been considered the leading city of Argentine basketball. Internationally well-known players are Emanuel Ginóbili (NBA, San Antonio Spurs, Texas), Juan Ignacio Sánchez also an NBA player who returned home in 2010 to found a professional local basketball team: Bahia Basket and Alejandro Montecchia. They were gold medal winners in the Olympic Games Athens 2004, and members of the Argentine Team which played the final match FIBA World Championship in Indianapolis 2002 (2° place) and the FIBA World Championship in Japan 2006 where they came in fourth. Their coach at that event was Sergio Santos Hernández, also a native of Bahía Blanca. Former players Alberto Cabrera (deceased) and Atilio Fruet (retired) are also well remembered at national and local levels.
The city's principal football (soccer) teams are Olimpo and Villa Mitre. Olimpo played in the Argentine first division until relegation in 2006, and was reinstated in 2010. Ex-Argentina national football team coach Alfio Basile and the football player Rodrigo Palacio were born in Bahía Blanca.