Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Last night I attended my inaugural baseball game in Venezuela, and I would have to say it was worth the wait. Yesterday marked the opening of the second stage of the season here. In the first, there is a 63 game schedule for each of the eight teams, at the end of which the top five teams qualify for what is called the semifinals or round robin. During the round robin each team plays a further 16 games, four against each opponent. The best two teams then advance to a best out of seven championship series.

In a quirk that Major League Baseball should adopt immediately, after the first round the five qualifying teams hold a four round draft to select players from the eliminated teams. This would have two galvanizing effects for MLB. First, it would improve competitive balance as small market teams, and even the Orioles, would have a better chance of signing their star players to long-term contracts. Adrian Gonzalez could have signed an extension to stay in San Diego secure in the knowledge that even if the club could not afford to build a strong team around him, he could still get picked up by the Red Sox for the playoffs. Second, it would ensure more star power in the postseason, improving TV ratings. Plus, how great would it have been in 2008 when the Tampa Bay Rays elected to take a situational left-handed reliever instead of Alex Rodriguez with their final pick and Derek Jeter was exposed as "not a true Brewer" after his 2/15 performance led to their elimination?

Anyway, unfortunately for me the Caracas team, the Lions, failed to qualify for the round robin for the first time since record keeping at this blog began last week. But I'm pretty sure that it's been a while. On the bright side, the team that finished with the best record in the first round, the La Guaira Sharks, is located in a port city about 45 minutes north of Caracas. Because the stadium in Caracas is much bigger than their own, the Sharks play half of their games in the capital. Last night they kicked off the semifinals by playing in Caracas against the team I chose as my favorite the last time I was in Venezuela, the Aragua Tigers. The Tigers have won five of the past eight championships here, but this season has been a really rough one for them. First one of their best players, Wilson Ramos (of the Washington Nationals) was kidnapped. Fortunately he was rescued days later in a rare and daring raid by the police. Then just last week a pitcher who had played for the team for the past 14 years (a club record for pitchers), Rosman García, was killed in a car accident. The Tigers squeaked into the round robin on the final day of the regular season and were hoping to start a new run of luck.

The Sharks, on the other hand, are enjoying their finest season in years. They last won a championship in 1986 and normally owe their identity to the rest of the league not to their on field performance but to their extraordinary fans. The Sharks fans are known as the samba kings and queens, and their dancing and cheering is legendary (you can see a quick video of them here). I did not have to wait long to understand why as shortly before the game began a mini-Carnaval broke out as a group of drummers and dancers paraded around the field. For the first few innings both sets of fans had plenty to cheer about as the lead swung back and forth. Chants and songs were passionate and loud, but completely in good fun - there was absolutely no animosity between the teams, and in fact only a couple of the most heated rivalries in the league ever really attract any bad blood between opposing sets of fans. Gradually the Tigers pulled away, draining a little bit of the spirit of the Sharks fans but drawing endless repetitions of their own favored cheer, which is the familiar "olé, olé, olé, olé..." heard at many soccer games, but with the word 'tigres' substituted for 'olé'. The Tigers ended up winning 13-7, and their best player on the night was a blast from the past, Edgardo Alfonzo.

On a personal note I got another reminder of one of the reasons I really enjoy Venezuelans. I got into fun conversations with the group of fans on either side of me. To the left was a passionate Tiburones-supporting group including a 16-year old who has signed with the Dodgers. To the right was a family with an eight-year old daughter who could not have been friendlier. We talked about all sorts of subjects and they ultimately offered to drive me home (walking back from the stadium not being a good option at night) and to put me in touch with a friend of theirs who may have a room for me to stay in for the rest of my time here. Not something that I have experienced at any Mets games.

There are two other teams in addition to La Guaira within a few hours of Caracas, including Aragua, so next I may have to check out how their stadium experiences compare. Just in case people were wondering, the three remaining teams I did not witness last night are the Magallanes Navigators, the Zulia Eagles, and the Anzoátegui Caribbeans. Magallanes and Caracas are the two biggest teams here traditionally, while Anzoátegui is defending their first ever title that they won last year. That wraps up my sports update as soccer season does not begin here until February. Perhaps by then Harrison Barnes will have decided to try his luck at playing a little defense.