Imagine giving New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady a
set of eight downs every 10 yards instead of four. Or if Boston
slugger David Ortiz had six strikes to work with every time he
stepped into the batters box and was given two at-bats in the
ninth inning.
That's roughly the equivalent of giving the
Dominican Republic two teams in the four-team, double-round-robin
Caribbean Series.
Well, almost. Some might say the D.R.'s
odds will be better when the six-day event starts Saturday at
Cibao Stadium in Santiago, D.R., considering the two teams
participating are Santiago's Aguilas del Cibao and Santo
Domingo's Licey Tigres, the two most respected and prolific
franchises in the history of professional baseball on the island.
Against the odds are entries from Venezuela and Mexico.
Puerto
Rico will not have a representative in the tournament this year.
Primarily because of economic reasons, the country halted winter
league play this winter for the first time in 69 seasons.
"This
is going to be a historic event for baseball," said Ronaldo
Peralta, MLB's Senior Manager of International Baseball
Operations in Latin America, located in Santo Domingo. "It's
the 50th anniversary and it's the first time the Series will be
played in Santiago. It's the first time the D.R. will have two
teams in it, and they are the two biggest teams. It's going to be
huge. It's very significant to the country."
The
winter league champions from Venezuela (Tigres de Aragua) and
Mexico's Yaquis de Obregon could be facing their stiffest
competition of the year on the first day of play Saturday.
Venezuela faces the Dominican team No. 2 (Licey) in the first
game of the round-robin. Mexico plays Dominican team No. 1
(Aguilas) in the nightcap.
The two Dominican teams face
each other for the first time in the tournament Monday night
following the matchup between Venezuela and Mexico. Historically,
the Licey-Aguilas matchup is the most anticipated game in the
Dominican Republic each winter.
The Aguilas title this
year marked the team's 20th Dominican League championship
overall, the most in island history. Licey, edged by the Aguilas
in the finals, boasts 19 league championships. By contrast,
Obregon's Mexican league title was its first in 27 years. Obregon
topped the Venados de Mazatlan to earn a spot in the Caribbean
Series.
A team from the Dominican Republic has won the
Caribbean Series title seven times since 1997 and 10 times since
1990. Overall, the Dominican Republic has won the title 16 times
since it began play in the round-robin tournament in 1970. Puerto
Rico has won 14 titles, Cuba has seven titles, and Venezuela has
won the round-robin six times overall. Mexico has won the
Caribbean Series five times and Panama won its first and only
title in 1950, when it was included in the original field with
Cuba, Puerto Rico and Venezuela.
The Dominicans have
dominated of late, but history of the tournament runs deep.
The
first Caribbean Series was held in Havana, Cuba in 1949, one year
after the formation of the Caribbean Federation in 1948. From
1949 to 1960, Cuba won the title seven times, but the run ended
when Fidel Castro took over Cuba in 1959 and ended the country's
participation in the event after 1960. Depleted, the Caribbean
Series disappeared for 10 years until a revival in 1970 that
included the addition of the Dominican Republic, Mexico and the
removal of Panama from the tournament.
** The Can-Am
League had 23 former or current players and one umpire (Matt
Pridemore) that participated in the winter leagues this year. The
league has two players that are playing in the Caribbean World
Series, former Brockton Rox INF Alex Nunez (pictured) and former
New Jersey Jackals OF Napoleon Calzado. Nunez, who plays for the
Venezuelan champion Aragua Tigres, hit .310 with four runs
scored, 18 hits and four RBI. Calzado batted .241 with three runs
scored, seven hits and two RBI for the Licey Tigres, one of two
champions from the Dominican Republic. **