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Venzuela wins 2006 Caribbean Series


The Caracas Lions,representatives of Venezuela
beat the Licey Tigers of the Dominican Republic
to capture their first title in the Caribbean Series since 1989.

By Amaury Pi-GonzálezVenezuela, the host country for this year’s Caribbean Series celebrates in the streets their first title in 17 years. For once the Venezuelan people are united.

Ramón Hernández, who is a catcher in the major leagues, played first base for his team the Caracas
Lions and won the MVP of the Caribbean Series,
finishing with a .542 average and 8 RBI.
Hernández played at first base so that veteran Henry Blanco could play catcher.

The last time a team from Venezuela won a Caribbean Series was in 1989 when the Zulia Eagles captured the tile on a series that took place in México. This was the 6th Caribbean Series title overall for Venezuela since the classic began back in 1949 in Havana,Cuba.

Other players for the Venezuelan champions
are Marco Scutaro,Geremi González, Wilfredo Rodríguez and Victor Moreno. While for the Licey Tigers of the Dominican Republic, Miguel Tejada,Julian Tavárez,Juan Cruz, José Valverde and Jorge Sosa were among the stars.

The political situation in Venezuela, where the government has started confiscating private property(like what happened in Cuba)and other problems that the Hugo Chávez government is facing is taking a back seat to the national
furor of the country “béisbol”.

Venezuela has one player in the Hall of Fame in
Cooperstown, great shortstop Luis Aparicio and
many of their players have played in the major
leagues. Here are a few you might recognize:
Chico Carrasquel,Dave Concepción,Ozzie Guillén,Omar Vizquel,Tony Armas,Victor Davalillo,
Luis Sojo,Miguel Cabrera,Johan Santana,Bobby Abreu,Edgardo Alfonso,Yorbit Torrealba,Andrés
Galarraga,Félix Hernández.

Below is the final standings for the 2006
Caribbean Series:

Venezuela 6-0
Dominican Republic 4-2
Puerto Rico 2-4
México 0-6

It was a disaster of a series for México who won
last year while the Venezuelan finished unbeaten.

Next year’s Caribbean World Series will be held in
Puerto Rico.

Spring Training is around the corner and then,
the first World Baseball Classic is slated to begin on March 3 at the Tokyo Dome in Japan and will conclude with the championship game the 20th of March at Petco Park in San Diego.

In the World Baseball Classic, the United States
and the Dominican Republic will probably field more major league players than any of the 16 teams representing the 16 nations, but I would keep an eye on Venezuela. Of all the countries in Latinamerica that are sending talent to the major leagues the Dominicans are still “número uno”but Venezuela is not very far behind.

Since baseball fever first reached Cuba in the 1870s,the game has infiltrated the sporting psyches
of Puerto Rico,México,Nicaragua,Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Panamá and Colombia.

Caribbean baseball,however,is not just an outgrowth of the game that is played in the United States. Instead, baseball has acquired an autonomous persona as the peoples of the region have made the game into their own national pastimes. In Cuba,Puerto Rico,Dominican Republic,Panamá, Venezuela and Nicaragua
baseball is #1(Soccer is not close) while in
certain regions of México and Colombia baseball
is the main sport.

0 comments

1 pachyderm { 02.09.06 at 1:10 pm }

Que Pasa Amaury,

This article should be send to Olympic commitees who votes for the sports to played at these games. Some of those voters may use the excuse of Baseball as an U.S. thing, but the reality of the situation large parts of Asia and Latin America, Baseball is the main sport. Just look at Venzuela celebration at Caribbean Series show how Beisbol fans have passion similar to Futbol fans.

Congrats to Marco Scutaro y Venzuela from
Edgar Martinez, A’S Fan

2 Anonymous { 02.11.06 at 1:50 am }

Amaury

thank you for this article, and the beisbol celebrations in Caracas are welcome sights, as they were in Habana when the Sugar Kings won the International Leaugue against Minneapolis in 1959

I hope you will be covering the coming tournament — the great unknown is information on the players Cuba will send –hopefully these players will be true representatives of the beisbol traditions of their country –as you know in the Olympics Korea is fielding a unified team — would be great if Cuba could one day field a unified team as well —

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