MIAMI, FL — Yesterday was day one of a nine-day Latino baseball frenzy known as the Caribbean Series. These games bring together the championship teams of many of the Caribbean and Central American baseball leagues. The games are routinely played in one of the Latin countries, but this year they are playing in one of the most Latino cities in the U.S.A., Miami Florida.
It’s a no brainer. Over 72% of Miami’s populations is Latino. Cuban, Puerto Rican, Venezuelan, Dominican, Salvadorian and Honduran’s making up most of the Latino population. With numbers like these makes Miami a good choice to host these games especially after the tremendous success of the World Baseball Classic games held here in 2023 that helped bump up national MLB ticket sales last season by 10%.
Three games will be played per day except for the two final days where only two games will be played leading to the championship. Yesterday’s first game between Puerto Rico and Nicaragua was scheduled for a 10:30 AM start. Truth be told, I’m curious as to why would they schedule a game for Thursday start day? The attendance for this game was just a little over seven thousand. If these games would have been scheduled for a Saturday, rather than a Thursday 10:30 AM start I believe that the game would have drawn many more fans.
Crowd for Nicaragua vs. Puerto Rico on Thursday February 1st at loanDepot Park – Image Credit: Serie Del Caribe
However, this leads to another question and that is how effective was the promotions for these games? I arrived yesterday morning from Puerto Rico at 6:00 AM, by the time I arrived at the ballpark it was still too early so we decided to find a place to have breakfasts.
Not being from the community, we asked a neighbor a block from the ballpark if she could direct us to a nearby café. She was surprised to hear that we were there for an international baseball series. We heard the same from another neighbor who allowed us to park our car in her driveway for $20 but was also surprised to learn from us that there was a baseball game at the stadium two blocks from their home. If neighbors to the park did not know about these games, one can only wonder what promotions were done to the rest of Miami?
Puerto Rico defeated Nicaragua by a score of 5-2. The team’s manager, Yadier Molina, future HOF and LatinoMVP winner used his pitchers wisely to keep several Nicaragua threats just that, threats.
Yadier Molina made several trips out to the mound to the benefit of a victory over Nicaragua – Image Credit: Latino Sports
The second game between Curaçao Vs. Mexico scheduled for 3:30 PM drew a lesser crowd of 5,763 fans. The game was surprising as many where I was sitting believed that Mexico was a better team because of their pitching. However, Curaçao surprised many with their bats to lead 6–2 into the bottom of the ninth when the Mexican bats woke up and scored three runs off two hits and a homerun to make it 6-5. The Mexican fans finally had much to cheer, but the cheers were not enough to help Mexico tie the game and go into extra innings.
An almost empty stadium makes one question what type of promotions were done for this Caribbean Series – Image Credit: Latino Sports
The highlight of day one was the evenings 8:30 PM game between Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. The two power countries that have the most Latino players in MLB.
The game was a pitcher’s duel with good defense on both sides. Venezuela defeated Dominican Republic before a crowd of 27,338 by a score of 3-1. The game had excellent pitching and defense to keep all fans on the edge of their seats.
Official schedule for Serie Del Caribe 2024 – Image Credit: Miami Marlins
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Janet
February 2, 2024 at 7:49 pm
Awesome.