The Venezuelan Professional Baseball League (, or LVBP) is the top-level professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

league in

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

. The league's champion takes part in the Caribbean Series each year.

History

Background and predecessors

Baseball had been played in Venezuela at the amateur level since the late 19th century, with the first national tournament played in Caracas in October 1917, between eight teams representing

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

, La Guaira,

Puerto Cabello Puerto Cabello () is a city on the north coast of Venezuela. It is located in Carabobo State, about 210 km west of Caracas. As of 2011, the city had a population of around 182,400. The city is home to the largest and busiest port in the count ...

, Macuto, and Maracay. Early clubs included Santa Marta (La Guaira),

and Magallanes (both of Caracas). A national baseball league () was officially formed on June 26, 1927. In the 1930s, the league included Magallanes, Royal Criollo, and Concordia, the latter of which was sponsored by Gonzalo Gomez, brother of dictator Juan Vicente Gómez. Concordia attracted talent like Martín Dihigo as well as future Venezuelan stars including Alejandro Carrasquel and Luis Aparicio Sr. The popularity of baseball exploded in Venezuela in 1941, following the

world championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Ramón Bragaña, Cocaína García, Oscar Estrada, Bertrum Hunter, Roy Campanella, Sam Jethroe, Satchel Paige, and Roy Welmaker.

Professionalization and early years (1946-64)

On December 27, 1945, the owners of Cervecería Caracas (Caracas Brewery), Sabios de Vargas (Vargas Wisemen),

Navegantes del Magallanes Navegantes del Magallanes B.B.C., commonly known as Navegantes del Magallanes (; ''Strait of Magellan, Magellan Navigators''), or simply Magallanes, are a professional baseball team in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League (LVBP), based in ...

(Magellan Navigators), and Patriotas de Venezuela (Venezuelan Patriots) created the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League. The league was formally registered as an institution during January 1946, and in the same month organized its first tournament, starting on January 3, 1946. Sabios de Vargas, led by Daniel 'Chino' Canónico, became the first champion, with a record of 18 wins and 12 losses. During the first tournaments, games were played on Thursdays and Saturdays on the afternoons, and Sundays in the morning. This was the norm until Cervecería Caracas' park — located in the San Agustín del Norte zone of

— was fitted with electric lights, enabling its use during night games. Thus, a game was added on Tuesday nights. Eventually, the tournament was changed to accommodate two rounds, with the top team of each round having a best-of-5 play-off to determine the champion. On August 8, 1952, Pablo Morales and Oscar Prieto Ortiz purchased the Cervecería Caracas team from Martín Tovar Lange, as the Caracas Brewery Co. was unable to continue sponsoring the team and it had the highest payroll of the league. The new owners renamed the team as Leones del Caracas (Caracas Lions), after the full name of the city, Santiago de Leon de Caracas. On October 17, 1952, the 1952-1953 season of the league started, with the first game of Leones del Caracas vs. Venezuela BBC. Leones del Caracas ended their season as champions for the first time. The next season, alongside the start of limited television coverage of the league, would see the departure of the teams Sabios de Vargas and Venezuela BBC due to economic problems, being replaced by two teams (Gavilanes and Pastora) from the professional league of the

Zulia State Zulia State (, ; Wayuu language, Wayuu: ''Mma’ipakat Suuria'') is one of the States of Venezuela, 23 states of Venezuela. The state capital is Maracaibo. As of the 2011 census, it has a population of 3,704,404, the largest population among Vene ...

, from western Venezuela. In 1954 Sabios de Vargas was replaced by Santa Marta and Patriotas de Venezuela came back both only for that year. In 1955 a new team was added in the place of the departed Venezuela, named Pampero; while the Santa Marta BBC was moved out of Caracas, and renamed to

Industriales de Valencia Industriales is a professional baseball team in the Cuban National Series. Located in Cerro, La Habana, it is known as the only team representing the country’s capital, Havana. Industriales is historically the most successful team in the Nati ...

(Valencia Industrymen). The 1956-1957 tournament would see further changes: the Navegantes del Magallanes team was purchased by advertisers Joe Novas and Joe Cruz and renamed as Oriente, leaving the league made of Leones del Caracas, Oriente, Pampero and Industriales de Valencia. In 1962, Los Tiburones de La Guaira (La Guaira Sharks) were brought into the league to replace Pampero.

Expansion (1965-1989)

In 1965, the league expanded from 4 to 6 teams, with the addition of the teams Cardenales de Lara and Tigres de Aragua. For the 1968-1969 tournament, the Industrymen left the city of Valencia and relocated to Acarigua with a new name: Los Llaneros. This left Valencia without a team, prompting the move of

from Caracas to Valencia, and their return to their original name for the 1969-1970 tournament. In 1969, Las Águilas del Zulia (Zulia Eagles) joined the VPBL to replace

. The 1970s saw the first successes for Venezuelan teams outside of Venezuela since the amateur championships of the 1940s, with the Navegantes del Magallanes winning two Caribbean Series. It also saw problems for the league, in the form of the strike that prevented the 1973-1974 tournament, and the problems the Leones del Caracas and Tiburones de La Guaira had in 1975–1976 to secure a baseball park to play their home games. This resulted in both teams merged into one, and forced to move to the city of Acarigua. Also in the 1970s, Tigres de Aragua won the first championships for the 1960s expansion teams. The 1980s saw the Leones del Caracas winning five tournaments, consolidating their lead as the most successful team in the league. Leones del Caracas also went on to win three championships in a row starting in the 1979–80 season, and their first Caribbean Series in 1982. The decade also saw success for the Tiburones de La Guaira, with the team winning 3 championships. Also in the 1980s, the Águilas del Zulia won their first two championships, all the way to also winning their first two Caribbean Series in 1984 and

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

1990s and 2000s

In 1991, the league expanded from six to eight teams, with the addition of the Caribes de Oriente (Eastern Caribbeans), who are now the Caribes de Anzoátegui (Anzoátegui Caribbeans); and the Petroleros de Cabimas (Cabimas Oilers), who became Pastora de los Llanos (Llanos Shepherds), and from the 2007–08 season on, Bravos de Margarita (Margarita Braves). This led to a change in format, with the eight teams being organized in two divisions: the Eastern Division (División Oriental) with the teams Caracas, Magallanes, La Guaira and Oriente; and the Western Division (División Occidental) with the teams Zulia, Lara, Aragua and Cabimas. The first two teams from each division by the end of the regular season of the tournament would qualify to the round-robin semifinals. The format would change again some years later, with the addition of a wildcard team in the semifinals: the best placed third-place from the two divisions would accompany the other four teams in a round-robin semifinal. For the 2007–08 season, with the move of the Pastora team from the western city of Acarigua to the eastern city of Porlamar, the Western Division and the Eastern Division were merged into a single division of eight teams, with the top five teams advancing to the semifinals. The 2015–2016 season saw a new change in format, with a regular season divided in two rounds, which ranked the teams by their record and assigned points depending on their position in the table at the end of each round. The total points from both rounds are added at the end of the regular season, and the teams are then ranked by points. Also part of the format change was the introduction of a sixth team qualified for the semifinals, and the change of the semifinal from a round robin format to two phases of play-offs to the best of 7 games. In recent years, Tigres de Aragua has become the most dominant team of the league, winning the crown seven times in the last fifteen years, including three times in a row from the 2006-07 season to the 2008-09 season and also winning the Caribbean Series in

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

. On August 22, 2019,

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

banned its affiliated players from playing in the Venezuelan League to comply with President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

's embargo on Venezuela. This ban was later limited to only

and Tigres de Aragua, and has since been lifted for all clubs. As of 2023, the LVBP has a limit of maximum five foreign players (known as imports) per team.

All Star Game

The league has scheduled All Star Games most years, sometime featuring Criollos (Venezuelan) vs Importados (foreigners), Western Division vs Eastern Division or Stars vs "Stars of the Future", and even a Venezuela's League Stars vs. Dominican Republic's League Stars inter-league all star game during the 2007-2008 and 2011-2012 tournaments.

Current teams

Format

The league houses eight teams in two divisions, the Occidental (Western) and the Central divisions. The tournament is divided into a regular season and a postseason consisting of a semi-final and final round.

Regular season

The regular season follows a round robin format where a total of 63 games are disputed by each of the eight teams that made up the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League, meaning that each team faces every other team a total of 9 times, 5 times as home club and 4 times as away team; the number of games as home club between any 2 clubs alternates year by year. At the end of the regular season, the teams are ranked from first place to last in their division depending on their win–loss record, and the first 2 teams in each division qualify. In the case of a tie between qualified teams, their position on the table is determined by the following criteria: * The team who won the most games in the head-to-head games between the tied teams. * The difference between runs scored and runs received will be used to break the tie if it persists. * A drawing of lots will be used if the tie persists. In the case of a tie between teams where a position in the postseason needs to be determined, the tie will be solved with extra games.

Postseason

The postseason consists of a semi-final and final round. All the series are playoff series to the best of 7 games. In all of these single elimination series, the team with better standing during the regular season has home advantage, playing the first two games as home club, then two games away, and if necessary, the fifth game is away and the last two games as home club.

Semifinal round

The semifinal round consists of two series in a best-of-seven format. The first team in one division faces the second team in the other division. There are rest days in both series after the second and fifth games.

Final

The play-off final is a series in a best-of-seven-format between the winners of the semifinal-series. The winner of this series goes on to play is the Caribbean Series.

Past champions

Championships per team

Defunct teams

* Cervecería Caracas * Estrellas Orientales * Indios de Oriente * Gavilanes de Maracaibo *

* Lácteos de Pastora * Licoreros de Pampero * Llaneros de Acarigua * Llaneros de Portuguesa * Pastora de los Llanos * Rapiños de Occidente * Patriotas de Venezuela * Petroleros de Cabimas * Sabios de Vargas * Santa Marta de La Guaira

Venezuelan Caribbean Series champions

The Venezuelan champion moves on to the Caribbean Series to face the champions of the baseball leagues of the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

and

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. Venezuelan teams have won the Caribbean Series eight times, most recently in

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

by the Tiburones de La Guaira, after having won the LVBP title during the 2023–24 season.

References

Bibliography

External links

* {{Professional Baseball 1945 establishments in Venezuela 1 Sports leagues established in 1945 Winter baseball leagues