Venezuelan Baseball
From SoSH
Contents |
History
Introduction and Early Years
While the date and exact manner of baseball's introduction to Venezuela is disputed, it is believed that the game first came in the early 1890s, brought in by Venezuelan students who were returning home from visits to the United States and Cuba. The first Venezuelan baseball club, Caracas BBC, was established in 1895. The first game, played later that year, consisted basically of a intrasquad scrimmage between the members of Caracas BBC, as there were no other official teams to play against at the time.
For much of the next decade, Venezuelan baseball was a game played mainly by sons of wealthy families, as it required a lot of space and relatively expensive equipment. However, in 1912, American entrepreneur William Phelps established a department store in Maracaibo and began to distribute equipment and form teams. Three teams, called Red, Blue, and Black, were formed with Phelps' aid to play games on weekends, and the game exploded in Maracaibo. By 1920, the city had 10 stadiums and 30 teams, and soon became famous as the home of Venezuelan baseball. Luis Aparicio hails from Maracaibo.
Formation of Leagues
Throughout the next decade, more teams continued to spring up, and finally, in 1927, the Venezuelan Association of Baseball was formed to nationally organize the sport. Maracay won the first championship, but the result was cast under suspicion, as this was the team that then-Venezuelan dictator General Juan Vincente Gomez played on and it was widely hypothesized that no one wanted to defeat his team for fear of angering him and triggering political repercussions. Also during this time, a rivalry developed between Magallanes and Caracas, which continues to this day and has been compared to the rivalry between the Red Sox and the Yankees.
Maracaibo developed its own professional association, the Zulian Baseball Association, to organize the vast number of teams in the area, and this league was recognized by the American leagues and indeed occasionally infiltrated by American players who wished to play winter ball, but it folded in the late 1960s due to administrative problems.
Growth of the Game After 1940
In 1941, an assembled group of amateur players won the Amateur Baseball World Championship in Havana, and baseball's popularity in Venezuela exploded. At this point, the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League, which is still in existence today, was formed. The initial four teams in the league were Magallanes, Cerveceria Caracas, Vargas, and Venezuela. Vargas wound up winning the first national tournament with an 18-12 record. In 1953, an agreement to have the VPBL and the not-yet-defunct Zulian League play each other in a Rotatory was reached, and after Pastora of the Zulian League won the new championship, they travelled to Havana and won the Caribbean Series, establishing the credibility and quality of Venezuelan baseball.
The Rotatory, however, dissolved soon after it was formed and the Western Professional Baseball League was founded in Maracaibo in 1954, featuring many of the teams from the Zulian League. A couple more teams were added in the 1960s to both expand the leagues and replace teams that had gone belly-up, and today's Venezuelan league began to take more permanent shape.
Modern Form
Today, the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League consists of two divisions, East and West, divided into four teams each. The Eastern Division consists of: Caribes de Anzoátegui (Puerto La Cruz), Leones del Caracas (Caracas), Tiburones de la Guaira (Caracas), and Navegantes del Magallanes (Valencia). The Western Division consists of: Tigres de Aragua (Maracay), Cardenales de Lara (Barquisimeto), Pastora de los Llanos (Araure), and Águilas del Zulia (Maracaibo).
The season lasts 62 games from October to December, at which point the top two teams from each division plus one wild card play a 16-game round robin tournament. The top 2 teams from this round robin then play a 7 game series in January to determine the national champion, who then plays internationally in the Caribbean Series.
Venezuela has historically done very well in the Caribbean Series, and was in fact the 2006 champion. However, thanks to a poor performance from their offense, they surprisingly did not get very far in the 2006 World Baseball Classic.
Venezuelans in the Majors
Venezuela has historically been a pipeline of excellent young international free agents for the major leagues, and the list of Venezuelans who have been successful in the majors is quite lengthy. Some notable players today include Bobby Abreu, Omar Vizquel, and Johan Santana. However, Venezuelan major leaguers have also increasingly been the subject of violence and plundering at home due to their money. For example, former Red Sox pitcher Ugueth Urbina's mother was kidnapped and held for ransom for months in 2004, and in 2005, he ws incarcerated after allegedly setting several members of his household staff on fire.
There is also some uncertainty as to the future status of Venezuelan free agents, as Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has threatened to prevent ballplayers from leaving to play in the U.S, though no action has been taken yet.
