SportsConfederation of Professional Baseball bets on the Caribbean Series in Venezuela: "We are working to make a magnificent Series"

Confederation of Professional Baseball bets on the Caribbean Series in Venezuela: “We are working to make a magnificent Series”

Caracas — The Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation (CBPC) trusted in the success of the next edition of the Caribbean Serieswhich will take place in two stadiums in Venezuela from February 2 to 9, 2023, with the presence of eight teams for the first time.

“I understand that, and what has been said so many times, that politics and sports should not be united,” the Caribbean baseball commissioner, Juan Francisco Puello, said Thursday at a press conference in Caracas.

“We are working to make a magnificent Series”, while anticipating scenarios as far as they can be anticipated, Puello said, who expressed that he is excited about the security offered by the Venezuelan authorities to guarantee the tournament without setbacks.

In 2019, the CBPC made an urgent decision, just seven days before the start of the tournament, and assigned Panama the venue for the Caribbean Series after withdrawing the event from Venezuela due to the political tensions that were shaking this country and the breakdown of relations between Caracas and Washington.

The Caribbean event was then played at the Rod Carew National Stadium in the Panamanian capital.

The maximum Caribbean baseball tournament has not been held in this South American country since 2014. In that edition, Los Naranjeros de Hermosillo, champions of Mexico, won the title.

Among the novelties of the 65th edition of the Caribbean Series, the return of Cuba and the incorporation of Curacao for the first time stand out.

The Caribbean tournament will bring together the winter baseball champions of Colombia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Panama and Venezuela. The ninth from Venezuela, as the host country, extended the invitation to Curacao, which does not have an active league during the winter, but has a talented group of players who play in organized baseball in the United States, including five of them in the Major Leagues.

Curacao’s representative, Jedrek Magdelena, told reporters that Detroit Tigers infielder Jonathan Schoop and San Diego Padres outfielder Jurickson Profar have already confirmed their presence on the Curacao team.

Cuba, meanwhile, returns, after being absent in the past three tournaments.

The Cuban team was part of the series from 1949 to 1960, during the so-called first stage of the tournament, but was dropped from the competition after the late Cuban President Fidel Castro banned professional sports on the island.

The Cubans returned to the Series in 2014 and were proclaimed champions in 2015, but the team had not participated since in January 2020 it was replaced at the last minute by Colombia after not obtaining US visas in time to travel to Puerto Rico as a result. of the tensions between Washington and Havana during the administration of then President Donald Trump.

It is not clear if Cuba will also be present in 2024, when the tournament is scheduled to be staged in the US city of Miami.

The president of the Venezuelan League, Guiseppe Palmesano, who heads the Organizing Committee of the Caribbean Series “Great Caracas 2023″, pointed out that the construction work of the new stadium in Caracas is well advanced and should be ready for the tournament. The other stadium will be the Forum de La Guaira, about 20 kilometers north of the Venezuelan capital and home of the Sharks.

Meanwhile, the University stadium in Caracas, with capacity for some 20,000 fans, will be used to host the training sessions of the participating teams that request it and will be in a position to host the competition if necessary.

In 2006, in Venezuela, it was also played in two venues, the central cities of Valencia and Maracay, where the local Leones del Caracas were crowned.

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