Porfirio Antonio Berroa Carbucia (February 27, 1928 – October 17, 2007) was a

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...

broadcaster known for his

Spanish language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a global language with more than 500 million native speakers, mainly in th ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

announcing. A native of

San Pedro de Macorís San Pedro de Macorís is a city and municipality (''municipio'') in the Dominican Republic and the capital of the San Pedro de Macorís province in the east region of the country; it is among the 10 largest cities of the Dominican Republic. The ...

, Dominican Republic, Berroa was affectionately known as "Billy" and "El Internacional". Recognized as one of the most important Spanish voices in baseball, Berroa began announcing

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

games in 1963, including the post-season games and All-Star competition from 1987 through 2004. He covered the

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...

Spanish broadcasts between 1987 and 1993 and rejoined the team from 1997 to 2007, mainly on Radio WADO 1280 AM. He also called games for the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...

and Philadelphia Phillies at different points in his career. Berroa also covered the

Caribbean Series The Caribbean Series (''Spanish'': ''Serie del Caribe''), also called Caribbean World Series, is the highest tournament for professional baseball teams in Latin America. The tournament location is rotated annually among the countries and is norma ...

, the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

, as well as professional

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...

, and announced Winter League baseball in the Dominican Republic for 50 years, the last 23 years with the Escogido Lions club. On October 17, 1998, he was selected to the Dominican Republic's Sports Hall of Fame. Berroa died of prostate cancer in Santo Domingo, D.R., at the age of 79.

References

Sources

New York Mets broadcastersNYM/MLB obituaryEl Diario (Spanish)
1928 births 2007 deaths Major League Baseball broadcasters New York Mets announcers New York Yankees announcers Philadelphia Phillies announcers Dominican Republic sportscasters Deaths from prostate cancer Deaths from cancer in the Dominican Republic {{DominicanRepublic-baseball-bio-stub