Cely: More changes are in store for Serie del Caribe in 2014
From SABR member Monte Cely of the Rogers Hornsby Chapter on January 27, 2014:
The 2014 Caribbean Series is being hosted by Venezuela and will be held at Estadio Nueva Esparta in Porlamar, Isla Margarita. This stadium is the home field of los Bravos de Margarita, one of eight teams in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League.
More changes are in store for the “Caribbean World Series” in 2014. The biggest news is that Cuba is returning to la Serie del Caribe after an absence of over fifty years. In an interview with ESPN Dominicana on June 11, the president of the Caribbean Confederation announced that Cuba would participate in the 2014 Series. However, subsequent to this announcement, MLB expressed concern that the U.S. State Department had not yet granted the appropriate license for Cuba to participate. The issue of Cuban re-entry was also interwoven with the need for the winter leagues to renew their agreement with Organized Baseball prior to the start of the 2013-14 winter season. In the event, all has been resolved and the current champion of the Cuban Serie Nacional, Villa Clara, is set to represent Cuba as La Serie del Caribe opens on February 1.
With five teams set to participate (the winter champions from Mexico, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Dominicana and Cuba), the format of competition for the 2014 Serie is also changing. The tournament will open with a single round-robin phase, from which the bottom team will be eliminated and the remaining four will enter a “knock-out” phase consisting of a semi-finals round and then the final.
Read the full article here: http://chapters.sabr.org/hornsby/research/papers/321
Originally published: January 27, 2014. Last Updated: January 27, 2014.