After ‘Miracle Season,’ onward to the Caribbean Series
By Hiram Alberto Torraca
Puerto Rico continues to be an island in crisis since Hurricane María, with residents leaving in droves. The Florida Division of Emergency Management reported earlier this week that, since Oct. 3, more than 361,000 people have left via commercial flights for Florida — more than 10 percent of the island’s population.
For Criollos de Caguas owner Raúl Rodríguez, his team’s Puerto Rican winter league championship and a trip to the Caribbean Series represents a chance to deliver fellow citizens pride and joy.
“We are very confident that we are going to confirm our standing as champs and bring back the Caribbean Series crown,” Rodríguez said. “We want to bring back to the people, many who still don’t have electricity, the joy they rightly deserve.”
The Roberto Clemente Professional Baseball League had promised an 18-game season, even amid the destruction of the storm’s aftermath and, against all odds, league officials, along with the four teams that participated, pulled it off.
Miracle Season
“I’m calling this the ‘Miracle Season,'” Criollos manager Luis Matos said, after his team swept the Cangrejeros de Santurce in the finals, 3 games to none, and won the crown for the second straight season.
“We had a successful season in which we achieved all our goals,” asserted RCPBL president Héctor Rivera Cruz. “We fulfilled our social obligation to offer entertainment to our people, the fans came out to see us, we gave our younger players a chance to grow, and we managed to put together a good team for the Caribbean Series.”
Add an element of suspense to that list. Late in the regular season, all four teams were tied for first. And on the last day, there was a chance of a three-way tie atop the standings.
The Criollos ended up winning the regular season and getting a bye to the finals. With their 18th winter league championship in hand, they now try to conquer the Caribbean Series for the second year in a row and the fifth time overall, starting today in Mexico.
The Criollos successfully defended their crown despite not being able to play in their home ballpark in Caguas — Yldefonso Solá Morales Stadium — which is still being used as a National Guard staging area.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, nearly 32 percent of the population of 3.5 million still lacks electricity four months after Hurricane María made landfall on the island on Sept. 20. Because of the slow recovery, the league played all but three of the 40 regular-season and playoff games in the daytime, usually at 1 p.m.
Despite free admission, attendance oscillated from 1,000 to 2,000 spectators. The RCPBL still considers that a win, because it at least equaled last year’s night-game attendance. For the finals, the league said it averaged 3,000 fans.
Development League
Rivera Cruz insisted before the season began that the RCPBL had a social obligation to play its season and help the island regain a sense of normalcy. To make the games available to the public, the whole schedule was broadcast on television and streamed online, thanks to Puerto Rico’s public television station, WIPR-TV.
WIPR-TV will also air the Caribbean Series — which in past years has been available only on pay-per-view.
While a handful of major leaguers participated in the regular season, the RCPBL preferred to embrace its role as a development league, highlighting the opportunities offered to younger players.
One who fully took advantage was 21-year-old San Diego Padres center fielder Aldemar Burgos, who in his first three seasons in the lower minors has barely averaged .211.
This past January, however, while wearing the colors of the Gigantes de Carolina, the right-handed Burgos looked like the second coming of hometown hero Roberto Clemente. He hit 25-for-62. His .403 average earned him the Rookie of the Year award.
The league’s MVP this season was 28-year-old David Vidal, who last year played for the Somerset (N.J.) Patriots in the independent Atlantic League. Vidal began the winter league season with the Águilas del Zulia in Venezuela before returning home to Puerto Rico for the Jan. 5 opener.
A versatile utility player who plays first, third and the outfield, Vidal hit .373 with four home runs, 14 runs and 12 RBI. After six seasons in the minors, Vidal has been unable to secure a ticket to the big leagues. But he was last winter’s Caribbean Series MVP, and if he returns with an encore performance next week, it might be enough to merit an invitation to spring training.
Jalisco or Bust!
With a hodgepodge roster composed of youngsters, older minor leaguers like Vidal, a handful of former major leaguers and Cubans Rusney Castillo and Dayron Varona, Caguas will now attempt to defend its Caribbean Series crown in Guadalajara, Mexico, starting today when it meets the home team Tomateros de Culiacán. The games will take place in the Estadio de Béisbol Charros de Jalisco, site of first-round matchups in last year’s World Baseball Classic.
As in recent years, the first phase will be a round-robin between the winter league champions of Puerto Rico, Mexico, Cuba (Alazanes de Granma), Venezuela (Caribes de Anozoátegui) and the Dominican Republic (Águilas Cibaeñas).
The Caribbean Series is akin to a mini World Baseball Classic — teams will be donning the uniforms of their countries, as opposed to their various team uniforms, so the Tomateros will be wearing the uniform of Mexico; the Criollos, Puerto Rico. The change is certain to galvanize the island of Puerto Rico, much as it did just a year ago, though so much has changed since then.
In the wake of legendary actor and broadcaster Raúl Carbonell Sr. being killed after a crash at an intersection in December, more and more traffic lights are finally being installed. People are starting to venture out at night, sensing a slight improvement in safety. And if Puerto Rico climbs through the round-robin stage unscathed, who knows?
Featured Image: Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP / Getty Images
Inset Image: Hiram Alberto Torraca / La Vida Baseball