Latin Americans are among baseball’s most coveted players, but their early days were a fight for respect. Fans mocked their broken English. Teams tried to anglicize their names. Some, like Roberto Clemente and Hector Espino, rebelled at these slights. Today, Latin players all but dominate the game.
One season after baseball returns to Tijuana with the Triple–A Tijuana Toros, the Bulls get gored from behind and run out of town, replaced by a familiar name. Meanwhile, Mexico plays David to the Dominican Republic’s Goliath in the 2005 Serie del Caribe. You won’t believe what happened!
Posse baseball trips have included Mazatlan, Mexicali and Hermosillo.
Did the Dominican Republic get complacent against Mexico in the 2005 Serie del Caribe?
The year before, not even a Haitian revolt next–door could distract the Dominican Republic from claiming another Serie crown, which had us wondering:
Can anybody beat these guys?
For two years in a row, the answer — shockingly — has been “yes!” But they still are the perennial team to beat in Latin America.
For the Posse, meanwhile, Santo Domingo was off the hook!
Puerto Rico went 0–6 in the 2004 Serie, and didn’t do much better a year later. What’s wrong with Puerto Rican baseball?
The sport actually appears to be dying here, even as the island has been wooing Major-League Baseball for a team of its own. For the rest of the 4–1–1 on "beisbol a la boricua," click on the flag!
The Posse was in effect for the 2003 Serie in San Juan…and what a trip it was!
After a year of political unrest at home, Venezuela returned to the Serie and serves notice: We can still play.
That notice was writ large in 2006, when Venezuela, following the example of Mexico the year before, not only hosted the Serie, but won it. In this tournnament, national pride is definitely an tenth man on the field.
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Back in the day, there was a team in the old Negro Leagues known as the New York Cubans. At the rate the major leagues, especially the Yankees, are signing defectors from Fidel’s island, there soon may be another one, this time of real Cubans.
What may have started as just one more by–product of the baseball arms race between Yankees and the Boston Red Sox is gradually expanding into a baseballwide gold rush as teams look to elevate their talent level by dipping into a pool of quality players still largely untapped here in the States.
And after the showing the Cuban national squad put on in the inaugural 2006 World Baseball Classic, that rush only figures to get stronger in the coming years.
Want to know more about beisbol cubano? Click on the flag!
Flags courtesy of ITA's Flags of All Countries used with permission.