Venezuelan baseball fans show their support for their league's champion at last year's Caribbean Series, held in Puerto Rico. Photograph provided by LatinoBaseball.comThoughts of baseball are part of what enable me to cope with the winter cold of recent days.
But it wasn’t the idea that Chicago White Sox general manager Ken Williams got raked over the coals Friday by frustrated Sox fans that give me my baseball kicks these days. I have no desire to be at the Palmer House Hilton today or Sunday for Sox Fest.
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My baseball attention span these days is spread among various Latin American cities, and will center this coming week on the Dominican Republic. The Caribbean island nation is going to be the host of this year’s Caribbean Series – the event now in its 50th year that allows the professional baseball leagues of Latin America to determine a regional champion from among their ranks.
All through this month, teams in the Dominican and Venezuelan leagues, along with the Pacific League in Mexico, have been engaged in rounds of playoffs that followed their 70-game seasons from mid-October through December. Those playoffs are scheduled to end by mid-week.
Then, the champions of each league (along with the second-best Dominican League team) will all venture to Santiago, where they will engage in a 12-games-in-six-days tournament that will result in one league champion winning the rights to boast that they are the best team in all of Latin American baseball.
One of the good aspects of the growing media universe is that it is now much easier to actually follow winter league baseball. ESPN’s Spanish-language channel carries broadcasts of the games – almost like a “Game of the Week” for the Spanish-speaking world.
When it comes to the Caribbean Series itself, some of the games are likely to make it onto the English-language ESPN channels.
And for those of us who are comfortable perching ourselves in front of a computer to watch a sports event, this year offers a new treat. A new business partnership will offer live video streaming of the games.
If I were devoted enough, I could now watch all the games of the tournament (that’s two per day for six days).
I doubt I’ll watch every inning, but I probably will try to catch some of the games, particularly those in which Mexico’s Pacific League champions play. Aside from the ethnic ties of having three grandparents who were born in Mexico, I must admit to feeling some sympathy for the teams that over the years have represented Mexico in the tournament.
But it wasn’t the idea that Chicago White Sox general manager Ken Williams got raked over the coals Friday by frustrated Sox fans that give me my baseball kicks these days. I have no desire to be at the Palmer House Hilton today or Sunday for Sox Fest.
.jpg)
My baseball attention span these days is spread among various Latin American cities, and will center this coming week on the Dominican Republic. The Caribbean island nation is going to be the host of this year’s Caribbean Series – the event now in its 50th year that allows the professional baseball leagues of Latin America to determine a regional champion from among their ranks.
All through this month, teams in the Dominican and Venezuelan leagues, along with the Pacific League in Mexico, have been engaged in rounds of playoffs that followed their 70-game seasons from mid-October through December. Those playoffs are scheduled to end by mid-week.
Then, the champions of each league (along with the second-best Dominican League team) will all venture to Santiago, where they will engage in a 12-games-in-six-days tournament that will result in one league champion winning the rights to boast that they are the best team in all of Latin American baseball.
One of the good aspects of the growing media universe is that it is now much easier to actually follow winter league baseball. ESPN’s Spanish-language channel carries broadcasts of the games – almost like a “Game of the Week” for the Spanish-speaking world.
When it comes to the Caribbean Series itself, some of the games are likely to make it onto the English-language ESPN channels.
And for those of us who are comfortable perching ourselves in front of a computer to watch a sports event, this year offers a new treat. A new business partnership will offer live video streaming of the games.
If I were devoted enough, I could now watch all the games of the tournament (that’s two per day for six days).
I doubt I’ll watch every inning, but I probably will try to catch some of the games, particularly those in which Mexico’s Pacific League champions play. Aside from the ethnic ties of having three grandparents who were born in Mexico, I must admit to feeling some sympathy for the teams that over the years have represented Mexico in the tournament.
The sight of baseball being played this week at the Estadio Cibao in Santiago, D.R., means (among other things) that the U.S. baseball spring training is less than two weeks away. Photographs provided by the Aguilas Cibaenas.
Since the Pacific League began sending its champion to the Caribbean Series in 1971, Mexico has had its teams win the fewest championships (only 5) of any Latin American nation. The most recent of those teams was the Mazatlan Deer in 2005 – also the most recent year that Mexico hosted the series.
The Dominican Republic has come to dominate the Caribbean Series. If one of their two teams wins the tourney this year, it will be the 17th time that a Dominican League team wound up being Latin American champions.
The Dominican League got two teams into the tournament this year largely because of that superiority. Normally, only their champion would have gotten into the tournament, and the champion of the Puerto Rican League would have been the fourth team.
But economic problems caused the Puerto Rican league this season to have to cut itself short. They did not send a team to the series.
Sadly, this is not uncommon. Three years ago, the Puerto Rican League sent two teams to the Caribbean Series when political strife made things too problematic for the Venezuelan League to finish its season and declare a champion to send to the series.
Insofar as politics is concerned, Cuba’s situation is the most severe. The old Cuban League champions used to dominate the Caribbean Series. But when Fidel Castro rose to control of the island nation, the political climate in Latin America became so intense that the entire tournament was cancelled – it did not take place between 1962 and 1970.
To this day, Cuba is excluded from the tournament on the grounds that the current Cuban League is an amateur operation, compared to the professional leagues that exist in the other countries.
But when Caribbean Series officials talk about future expansion of the tournament to include national champions from places like Nicaragua, Panama and Colombia, they admit that Cuba would beat them all for admission – once the Castro regime loosens its grip on athletics in that country.
It ought to make us appreciative that we live in a country where the political situation does not interfere with baseball. Our own professional baseball World Series tournament has only been disrupted twice in its 105-year history – and both times (1904, 1994) it was due to the pigheadedness of baseball officials rather than any outside forces shutting the game down.
Now I know that some U.S. baseball fans like to denigrate the quality of “beisbol” as played in Latin American countries, even though watching the U.S. national team of major leaguers who played in the World Baseball Classic in 2006 convinced me that the only reason Major League Baseball remains the top-ranked professional leagues in the world (as opposed to the Central and Pacific leagues in Japan or the Mexican League) is because of the influx of Latin American citizens who choose to spend their summers playing professionally “en los Estados Unidos.”
Some of those players like to return to their native countries during the winter months and play ball for their hometown teams for fun and athletic pride. Other young Latin American ballplayers use the winter leagues as a way of honing their talents while they are still low-paid minor leaguers waiting for a chance to establish themselves with a Major League team.
U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame members Roberto Clemente and Juan Marichal (along with another player who should be there – Fernando Valenzuela) have played in the Caribbean Series throughout the years, along with current major league stars such as Johan Santana, Carlos Beltran and Robinson Cano.
Another example of how the Caribbean Series is becoming a big deal is that it is starting to get U.S. corporate sponsorship. Heineken USA will be one of the underwriters of this year’s event. Not Dos Equis or Corona or some Latin American brand of “cerveza,” but the U.S. version of a German beer.
How interested am I in following the Caribbean Series?
Put it this way. There are some baseball fans in this country who hope to some day vacation in upstate New York so they can justify a trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
My dorky baseball dream vacation consists of someday taking a trip to the Dominican Republic or Venezuela in early February so I can watch a few Caribbean Series games. Somehow, I sense if I ever do go to the tournament, it will be in one of the years the series is staged in Mexico (at least I’d still be on the North American continent).
So come next weekend, I’ll be watching baseball – provided that my Internet connection does not go haywire during the games. It will be the first extended bit of high-quality baseball I will have seen since the end of October when the Boston Red Sox managed to come from behind and beat the Cleveland Indians to win the American League championship. (The World Series was a disappointment).
I’ll even be watching baseball on Super Bowl Sunday. While the rest of you will be watching suburban New York take on suburban Boston in a game that’s bound to fall short of all the hype it will get this coming week, I’ll be watching true championship quality sports being played.
I’ll probably be tearing my hair out watching the Pacific League champions get beat around by the teams from the Dominican and Venezuela. I’m just hoping the Mexican champions manage to do better than last year’s performance – when the Hermosillo Orange Growers only managed to win one game the entire series.
And unlike you, I won’t have to put up with countless ridiculous, overhyped television commercials. So who really has it better?
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTES: The Caribbean Series has a lengthy history and its own baseball traditions (http://latinobaseball.com/cws-history-eng.php) independent of Major League Baseball in the United States.
Fernando Valenzuela should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame (http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2002/12/31/hispanidad_hall_should_honor_fernando/5553/), and I remain convinced the BBWAA blew it in 2004 when they gave Valenzuela so little support that he fell off their ballot for future years' consideration.
Anybody wishing to join me in watching the cream of the crop of Latin America’s professional baseball leagues can watch here (http://www.eBeisbol.com/) at the following times, all of which are converted to the Central Standard Time zone – the only one that really matters because it is Chicago time.
SATURDAY, February 2
Dominican Republic 2 vs. Venezuela – 2 p.m.
Mexico vs. Dominican Republic 1 – 6 p.m.
SUNDAY, February 3
Dominican Republic 2 vs. Mexico – 2 p.m.
Dominican Republic 1 vs. Venezuela – 6 p.m.
MONDAY, February 4
Venezuela vs. Mexico – 2 p.m.
Dominican Republic 1 vs. 2 – 6 p.m.
TUESDAY, February 5
Venezuela vs. Dominican Republic 2 – 2 p.m.
Dominican Republic 1 vs. Mexico – 6 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, February 6
Mexico vs. Dominican Republic 2 – 2 p.m.
Venezuela vs. Dominican Republic 1 – 6 p.m.
The Dominican Republic has come to dominate the Caribbean Series. If one of their two teams wins the tourney this year, it will be the 17th time that a Dominican League team wound up being Latin American champions.
The Dominican League got two teams into the tournament this year largely because of that superiority. Normally, only their champion would have gotten into the tournament, and the champion of the Puerto Rican League would have been the fourth team.
But economic problems caused the Puerto Rican league this season to have to cut itself short. They did not send a team to the series.
Sadly, this is not uncommon. Three years ago, the Puerto Rican League sent two teams to the Caribbean Series when political strife made things too problematic for the Venezuelan League to finish its season and declare a champion to send to the series.
Insofar as politics is concerned, Cuba’s situation is the most severe. The old Cuban League champions used to dominate the Caribbean Series. But when Fidel Castro rose to control of the island nation, the political climate in Latin America became so intense that the entire tournament was cancelled – it did not take place between 1962 and 1970.
To this day, Cuba is excluded from the tournament on the grounds that the current Cuban League is an amateur operation, compared to the professional leagues that exist in the other countries.
But when Caribbean Series officials talk about future expansion of the tournament to include national champions from places like Nicaragua, Panama and Colombia, they admit that Cuba would beat them all for admission – once the Castro regime loosens its grip on athletics in that country.
It ought to make us appreciative that we live in a country where the political situation does not interfere with baseball. Our own professional baseball World Series tournament has only been disrupted twice in its 105-year history – and both times (1904, 1994) it was due to the pigheadedness of baseball officials rather than any outside forces shutting the game down.
Now I know that some U.S. baseball fans like to denigrate the quality of “beisbol” as played in Latin American countries, even though watching the U.S. national team of major leaguers who played in the World Baseball Classic in 2006 convinced me that the only reason Major League Baseball remains the top-ranked professional leagues in the world (as opposed to the Central and Pacific leagues in Japan or the Mexican League) is because of the influx of Latin American citizens who choose to spend their summers playing professionally “en los Estados Unidos.”
Some of those players like to return to their native countries during the winter months and play ball for their hometown teams for fun and athletic pride. Other young Latin American ballplayers use the winter leagues as a way of honing their talents while they are still low-paid minor leaguers waiting for a chance to establish themselves with a Major League team.
U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame members Roberto Clemente and Juan Marichal (along with another player who should be there – Fernando Valenzuela) have played in the Caribbean Series throughout the years, along with current major league stars such as Johan Santana, Carlos Beltran and Robinson Cano.
Another example of how the Caribbean Series is becoming a big deal is that it is starting to get U.S. corporate sponsorship. Heineken USA will be one of the underwriters of this year’s event. Not Dos Equis or Corona or some Latin American brand of “cerveza,” but the U.S. version of a German beer.
How interested am I in following the Caribbean Series?
Put it this way. There are some baseball fans in this country who hope to some day vacation in upstate New York so they can justify a trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
My dorky baseball dream vacation consists of someday taking a trip to the Dominican Republic or Venezuela in early February so I can watch a few Caribbean Series games. Somehow, I sense if I ever do go to the tournament, it will be in one of the years the series is staged in Mexico (at least I’d still be on the North American continent).
So come next weekend, I’ll be watching baseball – provided that my Internet connection does not go haywire during the games. It will be the first extended bit of high-quality baseball I will have seen since the end of October when the Boston Red Sox managed to come from behind and beat the Cleveland Indians to win the American League championship. (The World Series was a disappointment).
I’ll even be watching baseball on Super Bowl Sunday. While the rest of you will be watching suburban New York take on suburban Boston in a game that’s bound to fall short of all the hype it will get this coming week, I’ll be watching true championship quality sports being played.
I’ll probably be tearing my hair out watching the Pacific League champions get beat around by the teams from the Dominican and Venezuela. I’m just hoping the Mexican champions manage to do better than last year’s performance – when the Hermosillo Orange Growers only managed to win one game the entire series.
And unlike you, I won’t have to put up with countless ridiculous, overhyped television commercials. So who really has it better?
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTES: The Caribbean Series has a lengthy history and its own baseball traditions (http://latinobaseball.com/cws-history-eng.php) independent of Major League Baseball in the United States.
Fernando Valenzuela should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame (http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2002/12/31/hispanidad_hall_should_honor_fernando/5553/), and I remain convinced the BBWAA blew it in 2004 when they gave Valenzuela so little support that he fell off their ballot for future years' consideration.
Anybody wishing to join me in watching the cream of the crop of Latin America’s professional baseball leagues can watch here (http://www.eBeisbol.com/) at the following times, all of which are converted to the Central Standard Time zone – the only one that really matters because it is Chicago time.
SATURDAY, February 2
Dominican Republic 2 vs. Venezuela – 2 p.m.
Mexico vs. Dominican Republic 1 – 6 p.m.
SUNDAY, February 3
Dominican Republic 2 vs. Mexico – 2 p.m.
Dominican Republic 1 vs. Venezuela – 6 p.m.
MONDAY, February 4
Venezuela vs. Mexico – 2 p.m.
Dominican Republic 1 vs. 2 – 6 p.m.
TUESDAY, February 5
Venezuela vs. Dominican Republic 2 – 2 p.m.
Dominican Republic 1 vs. Mexico – 6 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, February 6
Mexico vs. Dominican Republic 2 – 2 p.m.
Venezuela vs. Dominican Republic 1 – 6 p.m.
THURSDAY, February 7
Mexico vs. Venezuela – 2 p.m.
Dominican Republic 1 vs. 2 – 6 p.m.
If a tie-breaking game between the top two teams is required, it will be played on Feb. 8.
The Mazatlan Deer are the last Pacific League champions to manage to win the Serie del Caribe. Photo illustration provided by los Venados del Mazatlan.
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