A tournament of champions unlike any other in the game, the Caribbean Series closes out the winter every year in a historic gathering of baseball-mad countries up and down the Western Hemisphere.
Even Willie Mays was drawn into the baseball royal rumble of the Caribbean Series. In 1955, not far removed from nearly two years spent in the Korean War after he was drafted into the United States Army, Mays was so hungry to play more baseball, he joined Cangrejeros de Santurce of Puerto Rico to play through his winter offseason.
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Mays was coming off an MVP year in 1954, one of the best single seasons in major-league history, and his over-the-shoulder catch to put out Vic Wertz in Game 1 of the World Series. After the Giants won the Series, Mays joined Roberto Clemente and Don Zimmer in Puerto Rico and won two more titles for Santurce that winter, including the Caribbean Series. “I don’t care what league it is, I live to play ball,” Mays said that year.
The history of the Caribbean Series runs deep — with the 65th edition set to begin this week in Venezuela.
So what exactly is the Caribbean Series? And why is it so important?
What is the Caribbean Series?
Known at times as the Caribbean World Series, it’s now an eight-team tournament that features winter league champions from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Cuba and Curaçao.
While the World Baseball Classic is played between all-star national teams, a bit like soccer’s World Cup, as the tournament of winning club teams, the Caribbean Series functions like soccer’s Champions League in Europe.
At times, the winter leagues afford young minor leaguers valuable experience during their offseasons and veteran major leaguers a chance to showcase themselves for free agency. But the teams that qualify from leagues that make up the Caribbean Series are largely homegrown clubs and are often points of pride in their cities.
When did the Series start and why?
The Caribbean Series was born, in part, out of a defining upset in Cuba and the death of the Negro Leagues in America.
In 1941, an upstart team from Venezuela won baseball’s World Cup, then known as the Amateur World Series, upsetting the heavily favored team from Cuba. That team became known in Venezuela as “Los Héroes del ’41” and they lit a fire of fandom in the country. Baseball remains the top sport in Venezuela.
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Then, after Jackie Robinson broke in with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 as MLB’s first Black player, segregation in the game began to fade away. But as more and more Black players found a path in the major leagues, they appeared less and less in the winter leagues, causing a talent drain.
Two men in Venezuela, Oscar Prieto and Pablo Morales, were looking to feed the desire of newfound fans in their country. They wanted to spread the game to other countries in South and Central America, so they birthed the idea of a Caribbean Series. They pitched the concept at a conference in Miami in 1948 and by 1949, Cuba hosted the first tournament.
That first Caribbean Series was a four-team affair of top teams from Cuba, Panama, Puerto Rico and Venezuela each playing a series of doubleheaders over six days. Alacranes del Almendares — one of the original three teams in the old Cuban League that formed in 1878, two years after the National League launched in the U.S. — dominated the first tournament, sweeping all six games.
Who plays in the tournament?
The field of teams has evolved over time, notably after Fidel Castro banned Cuba’s professional leagues and required the game be played at an amateur level.
Over time, 28 clubs have won at least one Caribbean Series, topped by Tigres del Licey from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, who have won 10 titles. Their primary rival in the Dominican league, Águilas Cibaeñas, has won the second-most championships, with six. Two Puerto Rican teams, Cangrejeros de Santurce and Criollos de Caguas, have each won five titles.
By country, teams from the Dominican have won 21 Caribbean Series, followed by Puerto Rico with 16. Teams from Mexico have won nine.
Cuba will return this year after a three-year absence. Curaçao, an island country in the Caribbean that is a constituent country of the Netherlands, was added as an eighth team this year after an invitation from the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation. Together, their additions will make for the largest field in Caribbean Series history.
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Colombia was first added in 2020 and soon won its first and only title. Caimanes de Barranquilla is the tournament’s defending champion, but they failed to repeat as league champs in Colombia.
The teams this year include Tigres (Dominican), Indios de Mayagüez (Puerto Rico), Leones del Caracas (Venezuela), Cañeros de Los Mochis (Mexico), Vaqueros de Montería (Colombia), Federales de Chiriquí (Panama), Agricultores (Cuba) and WildCats KJ74 (Curaçao).
You ever seen a walk-off this electric?
Venezuela does it differently.
🎥 @ElExtrabase pic.twitter.com/srQadCep1q
— The Athletic MLB (@TheAthleticMLB) January 31, 2023
Who is favored this year?
Tigres have won the most titles and they survived a stout field in the Dominican, finally outlasting Estrellas Orientales to win a record-breaking league championship. Rosters aren’t yet set, but Tigres’ lineup featured several players familiar to the major leagues, including Robinson Canó. Ex-Padres catcher Jorge Alfaro, who reportedly signed a minor-league deal with the Red Sox, was named the league finals MVP last week for Licey.
Indios de Mayagüez, though, was led in part this season by Nationals shortstop Jeter Downs and pitcher Braden Webb, a third-round pick of the Brewers in 2016. And Leones del Caracas, who won a deciding Game 6 Monday night after Harold Castro hit a walk-off homer in the 11th inning, have Braves shortstop Orlando Arcia and his older brother Oswaldo at second base.
When and where and how to watch?
The Caribbean Series this year will run from Feb. 2 through Feb. 10 in a round-robin style format. The four teams with the best record advance to a one-game semifinal, with a one-game championship scheduled for Feb. 10.
The tournament rotates host nations and this year will be played in Venezuela, between the cities of Caracas and La Guaira. Miami is set to host the 2024 Caribbean Series at the Marlins’ home park.
This year’s games will be broadcast in the U.S. on ESPN Deportes.
(Photo of Puerto Rico’s Edwin Diaz (left) and Venezuela’s Willians Astudillo: Fernando Llano / Associated Press)
