History of the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League

Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick, hosting a meeting on August 24, 1953, with Emilio de Aldrey of the Puerto Rican League, Bobby Maduro of the Cuban League, and Luis Alejandro Blanco Chataing of the Venezuelan League. The baseball executive council agreed to permit 48 major-league players to participate in 60 games with Caribbean Confederation-affiliated clubs. (Getty Images)

 

To truly appreciate the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League (Liga Venezolana de Béisbol Profesional, or LVBP, in Spanish), one must first grasp the sociopolitical and military events that gripped the country in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Baseball’s origins are linked to armed conflict. Union Army officer Abner Doubleday was thought to have invented the game in New York in 1839 (though he never made such a claim and subsequent research has proven its falsity). The sport then gripped the island of Cuba in 1865, soon after United States marines visited the port of Matanzas. According to Iglesias Van Pelt, a pair of Cuban generals brought gloves, bats, and baseballs to Puerto Rico in 1896. Colonel Gonzalo Gómez, son of Venezuelan strongman Juan Vicente Gómez, ran his country’s baseball leagues, and in the Dominican Republic, dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina ruled both country and sport with an iron first for three decades beginning in 1930.

Myths or not, history has proved that these antiheroes played a pivotal role in the spread and development of baseball in the Caribbean. However, the Venezuelan flame was lit in 1895 by members of the upper class returning from their studies in the United States. These caraqueños, joined by Cubans fleeing Spanish oppression and American railroad administrators, founded both the Caracas Baseball Club and its amateur opponents.

Venezuela, riddled with a low literacy rate and a high level of disease, idealized baseball as progress. By the end of the 1920s, its amateur sport associations represented both the societal elite (the Samanes) and the working class (Girardot and the Independencia de Caracas). Fans relished their exhibition contests, symbols of modernization.

The 1920s brought the advent of the National Baseball League (Liga Nacional de Béisbol), bolstered by “imports” from Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. A quartet of teams (the Royal Criollos¸ Maracay, the Tigres of Santa Marta, and the July 29 Military) played in the San Agustín Stadium, modeled after American ballparks.

Clashes between the Magallanes and the Royal Criollos soon became the marquee rivalry, highlighted by pitcher Balbino Inojosa and catcher Manuel “Pollo” Malpica. Caribbean-born stars Pelayo Chacón and Manual “Cocaína” García came to play in the nascent league, as did Josh Gibson, Johnny Mize, Martín Dihigo, Silvino Ruiz, and Benito Torres for the newly created Águilas de Concordia.

Baseball fever soon spread from the capital to the country’s other regions. Leagues soon sprang up in Maracaibo, Barquisimeto, and Coro, where José Antonio Casanova and sibling shortstop virtuosos Luis and Ernesto Aparicio first graced the diamond. Gavilanes, Pastora, and Vencedor B.C.C. de Valencia enthralled fans away from the capital.

Juan Vicente Gómez’s passing in 1936 marked the end of the “béisbol romántico.” The First Division of Venezuelan Baseball (Primera División) was officially founded with the Royal Criollos, Magallanes, Santa Marta, and short-lived squads like the Concordia, Vargas, Venezuela, Latinos, Lucana, Caribes, Cardenales, and Universidad.

The result? An unbalanced league, a mix of amateur players and those remunerated for their skills. Most, however, had to toil in factories or in the service industry to earn their daily bread. From this formula sprang the first US big leaguer: Alejandro “Patón” Carrasquel.1

This evolution reached a significant stage in 1941 as the national team won the fourth Amateur Baseball World Series in Havana. Two more titles (1944 and 1945) would follow. Abelardo Raidi, Jesús Corao, and Herman Ettedgui served as godparents for the sport, scouting talent on the field and handling the business off it. Their economic means and government support, under both General Isaías Medina Angarita and his predecessor López Contreras, nurtured a new generation of stars: Jesús “Chucho” Ramos, Luis Romero Petit, Héctor Benítez, Jesús “Carrao” Bracho, Dalmiro Finol, Daniel Canónico, and José Antonio Casanova, who crossed the threshold from the amateur sphere to the professional ranks.

Entrepreneurs and promoters soon seized the opportunity to develop a booming business. The success of amateur competitions and the expansion of radio (the “social media” of the times) encouraged the creation of a proper professional league. On January 12, 1946, the LVBP was officially born as Magallanes and Venezuela played the inaugural game in the Cerveza Caracas Stadium (née San Agustín). Under the leadership of Alfredo Scannoney, the circuit’s four teams were led by soon-to-be immortals: the Sabios de Vargas (winner of the first title with Roy Campanella behind the plate), Cervecería Caracas (with Alfonso “Chico” Carrasquel and the bulk of the 1941 national team), Magallanes (with Vidal López and Luis Aparicio Ortega), and Venezuela (with Juan Antonio Yánez).

J.L. TUCUPIDO C., a Venezuelan journalist, writer, and broad- caster, has been a SABR member since 2021 (Luis Castro/ Latin America Chapter), and a member of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). A consistent researcher of the national pastime’s history, development, and present, he works on research and biographical publications of major-league and Winter League professional baseball players, broadcasts, and announcers. Contributor to Diamante23.com and author of the book Confabulación (2025), an exciting novel that describes an unprecedented conspiracy between journalism and baseball.

 

SOURCES

Venezuela al Bate. Orígenes de nuestro béisbol 1895 – 1945, Documentary, Cinesa Channel, Bolívar Films Archive, Venezuela.

General José Antero Núñez y Alfredo Méndez, “Oro y Gloria del Béisbol Venezolano,” JAN Editor, 1991, Venezuela.

Carlos Figueroa Ruiz and Javier González, “60 Juegos Memorables en 60 años de la LVBP,” Grupo Editorial Norma, 2006, Venezuela.

Rafael Ayala Álvarez, “La Historia del Béisbol,” Ediciones Reflejos de La Vida, 2005, Colombia.

Jorge Colón Delgado, “Origen del Béisbol en Puerto Rico,” https://www.beisbol101.com.

Christopher Díaz, “Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina ‘Trujillo.’” 2017, https://www.wattpad.com/story/116672978.

 

NOTES

1 On April 23, 1939, Alex Carrasquel became the first Venezuelan to play in the US major leagues as the Washington Senators hosted the New York Yankees in Griffith Stadium. Carrasquel came out of the bullpen to relieve left-hander Ken Chase with two outs in the top of the fourth inning. With the Senators down 6-3, Carrasquel retired Joe DiMaggio on a fly ball to center fielder George Case. Although the Senators lost the game, the 22,000 Washington fans in attendance witnessed 5 1/3 innings of outstanding pitching as Carrasquel demonstrated the caliber of Venezuelan baseball.