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Baseball is Venezuela's leading sport.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(September 2023) |
Baseball is Venezuela's leading sport.
Baseball in Venezuela originates with the early twentieth century cultural influence of United States oil companies, introduced in the country at the end of the 1910s and at the beginning of the 1920s by American immigrants and workers from the exploding oil industry in the country.[ citation needed ]
Baseball's definitive explosion in Venezuela was in 1941, the year of the Baseball World Cup in Havana when the national team beat Cuba in the finals. This team was consecrated by the press and the fans as "Los Héroes del '41" (The Heroes of '41). Since that year, baseball has transformed into the nation's most popular sport, a status it enjoys till today. [1] Buoyed by this success, the sport took on a life on its own, and in 1945, the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League (VPBL) was established as the country's primary baseball league.[ citation needed ]
The VPBL is a winter league that was established in 1945, with Leones del Caracas the leading team; another leading club is Valencia's Navegantes del Magallanes, established in 1917. There are currently 8 teams in the league. There is a Venezuelan Summer League established in 1997 and composed of teams affiliated with Major League Baseball (MLB) clubs. The Liga paralela is a secondary Venezuelan winter league, with the teams acting as farm teams for VPBL clubs. In 2021, the Venezuelan Major League, a summer league circuit, was launched.[ citation needed ]
Venezuelan teams have won the Caribbean Series a number of times. The Venezuela national baseball team won the Baseball World Cup several times in the 1940s, and the baseball tournament at the Pan American Games in 1959. The team finished 7th in the inaugural World Baseball Classic and 3rd in the 2009 event, but has dropped to 10th in the 2013 event.[ citation needed ]
Over 350 Venezuelans have played in Major League Baseball since 1939, with 59 Venezuelans playing in MLB as of Opening Day 2014, the second most from any country (after the Dominican Republic). [2] The Luis Aparicio Award was established in 2004, in honor of Luis Aparicio, the only Venezuelan ballplayer to have been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. The award is given annually to honor the Venezuelan player who recorded the best individual performance in Major League Baseball, as voted on by sports journalists in Venezuela.[ citation needed ]
Six MLB teams maintained training academies in Venezuela in 2010, down from 21 in 2002. Possible reasons for the decline include strained relations between the U.S. and Venezuela and the increasingly ubiquitous presence of MLB teams in the country creating more competition for talent there. [3] [4]
In November 2011 Washington Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos was kidnapped while home to play for his Venezuelan winter league team, Tigres de Aragua. [5] Two days later he was rescued unharmed by police commandos in the mountains of Carabobo state. Eight people were arrested in connection with the kidnapping. [6]
Out of the 50 players involved in the 2012 Major League Baseball World Series, 9 were Venezuelan.
International Free Agency in Venezuela
The morality of the international free agency process in nations such as Venezuela is often questioned due to various reasons. Money-hungry agents prey on naive and underprivileged latino baseball players in attempts to pocket as much of their signing bonuses as possible. As a result of this exploitation, many opt to attend baseball academies rather than school, which leaves them without education. These academies are often very low quality, with their main purpose being to hide players that are too young to officially sign from other teams that are scouting talent in the same area.
Players are led on by these teams by being promised free visas, even though they do not have enough to fulfill all of the promises they make. Organizations and agents often crush the dreams of these baseball players through false promises and exploitation, and get away with these acts due to the lack of regulation and laws surrounding the exploitation of young athletes. Major League Baseball is aware of this issue, however due to the current system providing the league with cheaper talent, there is no urgency to resolve any existing issues. [7]
| Rank | Stadium | Capacity | City | Tenants | Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | La Rinconada Baseball Stadium | 40,000 | Caracas | Leones del Caracas |  |
| 2 | Estadio La Ceiba | 30,000 | Ciudad Guayana | ||
| 3 | Estadio Luis Aparicio El Grande | 23,900 | Maracaibo | Águilas del Zulia | |
| 4 | Estadio Antonio Herrera Gutiérrez | 22,000 | Barquisimeto | Cardenales de Lara | |
| 5 | Estadio Universitario | 20,723 | Caracas |  | |
| 6 | Stadium Nueva Esparta | 18,000 | Porlamar | Bravos de Margarita | |
| 7 | Estadio Alfonso Chico Carrasquel | 18,000 | Puerto La Cruz | Caribes de Anzoátegui |  |
| 8 | Estadio José Bernardo Pérez | 16,000 | Valencia | Navegantes del Magallanes | |
| 9 | Estadio José Pérez Colmenares | 12,647 | Maracay | Tigres de Aragua |  |
Luis Ernesto Aparicio Montiel, nicknamed "Little Louie", is a Venezuelan former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a shortstop from 1956 to 1973 for three American League (AL) teams, most prominently the Chicago White Sox. During his ten seasons with the team, he became known for his exceptional defensive and base stealing skills. A 13-time All-Star,, he made an immediate impact with the team, winning the Rookie of the Year Award in 1956 after leading the league in stolen bases and leading AL shortstops in putouts and assists; he was the first Latin American player to win the award.
Alfonso Carrasquel Colón, better known as Chico Carrasquel, was a Venezuelan professional baseball player, coach, scout and manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a shortstop from 1950 to 1959, most prominently as a member of the Chicago White Sox where he became the first Latin American in MLB history to start in an All-Star Game in 1951. A four-time All-Star known for his exceptional defensive skills, Carrasquel was the first in a long line of Major League shortstops from Venezuela including, Luis Aparicio, Dave Concepción, Ozzie Guillén and Omar Vizquel among others. He also played for the Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Athletics and the Baltimore Orioles.
In professional sports, scouts are experienced talent evaluators who travel extensively for the purposes of watching athletes play their chosen sports, and they determine whether their set of skills and talents represent what is needed by the scout's organization. Some scouts are interested primarily in the selection of prospects; younger players who may require further development by the acquiring team, but who are judged to be worthy of that effort and expense for the potential future payoff that it could bring, while others concentrate on players who are already polished professionals, whose rights may be available soon, either through free agency or trading, and who are seen as filling a team's specific need at a certain position. Advance scouts watch the teams that their teams are going to play in order to help determine strategy.
Edgar Jose Ramos is a Venezuelan former professional baseball pitcher. Ramos played for the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball (MLB). He threw and batted right-handed.
Víctor Manuel Zambrano is a Venezuelan former professional baseball pitcher. He played all or parts of seven seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 2001 to 2007.
Thomas Dale Brookens is an American former professional baseball third baseman. He played for the Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees and Cleveland Indians of the Major League Baseball (MLB). Brookens was on the Tigers' coaching staff from 2009 to 2013, serving as first base coach and later third base coach. He was replaced as third base coach prior to the 2014 season by Dave Clark.
Gus Triandos was an American professional baseball player and scout. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher and a first baseman, most prominently as a member of the Baltimore Orioles where he was a four-time All-Star player. He also played for the New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles, and the Detroit Tigers of the American League (AL) and the Philadelphia Phillies and Houston Astros of the National League (NL). In 1981, he was inducted into the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame.
Bruce Edwin Benedict is an American former professional baseball player, coach and scout. He played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball as a catcher for the Atlanta Braves from 1978 to 1989.
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Arturo J. Marcano Guevara, a native of Caracas, Venezuela, is an author on the topic of professional baseball in Latin America.
The Águilas del Zulia is a Venezuelan professional baseball team based in Maracaibo which plays in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League.
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The Luis Aparicio Award is given annually to a Venezuelan player in Major League Baseball (MLB) who is judged to have recorded the best individual performance in that year. The winner of the award is determined by a vote conducted by Venezuelan sports journalists and Spanish-language media around the world. It is named after former MLB shortstop Luis Aparicio, who is the only player from Venezuela to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The award was first presented in 2004, and was created in order to honour Aparicio's major league career and to commemorate his father, who died thirteen years before his son was elected into the Hall of Fame.
The major sports in Venezuela are baseball, basketball and football. Baseball in Venezuela originates with the early 20th century cultural influence of the United States oil companies. The Venezuelan Professional Baseball League was established in 1945. Football in Venezuela lags behind baseball, but its popularity in recent years has grown. Basketball and volleyball are also popular sports; there has been a national basketball league since 1974. The Vuelta a Venezuela is one of six cycling events in the UCI America Tour. The polo club Lechuza Caracas has had some success in North American polo competitions.
There have been four different professional baseball clubs in Venezuela that have played under the name Pastora. These teams have been established in the northwest of the country, particularly in the states of Zulia and Acarigua, and have played in different leagues between 1931 and 2000.
The Gavilanes de Maracaibo was a Venezuelan professional baseball club based in Maracaibo, the capital city of Zulia state. The team was founded by the brothers and ballplayers Ernesto Aparicio and Luis Aparicio, Sr., played in various leagues in the western part of country, debuting in the Zulia Baseball League First Division (1932–52) and playing most of the rest of their existence in the Liga Occidental de Béisbol Profesional.
Luis Aparicio Ortega was a Venezuelan professional baseball personality for 40 years, serving as a player, coach, field manager, and club organizer. Aparicio was the father of Baseball Hall of Fame member Luis Aparicio.
Rafael Alejandro Marchan is a Venezuelan professional baseball catcher for the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball (MLB). Marchan signed with the Phillies organization as an amateur free agent in 2015, at age 16. Originally an infielder, he converted to catcher and impressed scouts and coaches early in his minor league career with his prowess on defense.
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