Leones del Caracas

Leones del Caracas
Team logo Cap insignia
Information
League	Venezuelan Professional Baseball League
Location	Caracas, Venezuela
Ballpark	Monumental Stadium of Caracas Simón Bolívar
Founded	May 7, 1942
League championships	21 (1947–48, 1948–49, 1951–52, 1952–53, 1956–57, 1961–62, 1963–64, 1966–67, 1967–68, 1972–73, 1977–78, 1979–80, 1980–81, 1981–82, 1986–87, 1987–88, 1989–90, 1994–95, 2005–06, 2009–10, 2022–23)
Caribbean Series championships	2 (1982, 2006)
Interamerican Series championships	1 (1950)
Former name(s)	Cerveceria Caracas
Uniforms
Home Away

The Caracas Base Ball Club C.A., better known by its commercial name as the Leones del Caracas, is a professional baseball team of the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League (LVPB). The owner and sole shareholder of the sports club is Ricardo Cisneros, president of Ateneas Sports Holding.

Its name comes from the official name of the city of Caracas—Santiago de León de Caracas—which Diego de Losada assigned to it when it was founded in 1567. Consequently, a lion appears as a symbol on the representative coat of arms of the city of Caracas.

Los Leones del Caracas is a very popular team in Venezuela, and is the team with the most titles (21), and has runners-up (17), played finals (34), played post-seasons (3&). Second highest win percentage in the LVBP in regular season: (D-D 2187-2100 51%), post-season: (D-D 206-178 55.0%), finals (D-D 97-78 55.4%).

The team's colors are dark blue and gold and the crest features a lion, a symbol of the city of Caracas since 1591.

History

1895 Caracas Baseball Club.

Cervecería Caracas was founded in 1942, after Cervecería Princesa, an early team, was bought and transformed into Caracas. At first, the team played its home games at the old Estadio Cerveza Caracas, which was located in the capital city of Caracas. The team was founded by Martín Tovar Lange and managed by big leaguer Alejandro Carrasquel.

The Princesa team played its last game on May 7, 1942. Then, Caracas debuted four days later with a 7–3 victory over the Criollos (English: Creoles). The game was played in Puerto Cabello, a city on the north coast of Venezuela. Caracas faced its later nemesis, the Navegantes del Magallanes for the first time on December 27 of that year, winning this now historic game by a 3–0 score.

In its first stage, the team won two championship titles before moving to the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League in January 1946.

Since its inception, the Caracas team was characterized by having only Venezuelan players on their roster. The club changed its policy in 1950, after signing catcher Lester Fusselman and outfielder Maurice Mozzali, two St. Louis Cardinals prospects.

In 1952, the franchise was bought by the publicist and sport commentator Pablo Morales and christened Leones del Caracas as a new franchise. Since then, the team plays its home games at the Estadio Universitario in Caracas. Later, businessman Oscar Prieto Ortiz joined Morales as a legal partner.

Pete Rose was benched after a slump late in the 1964 MLB season, finishing with a .269 average, but continued to play winter ball in Venezuela with the Leones del Caracas team during the 1964–1965 season to improve his batting.

By 2001, the descendants of Morales and Prieto sold their shares to the Grupo Cisneros, giving it majority control of the team.

Panoramic view of the stadium.

Through 2024, the Caracas team has won 21 championship titles (3 as Cervecería Caracas and 18 as Leones del Caracas), more than any other team in Venezuelan Professional Baseball League history.

In the 2015-16 season, they became the club with the highest average home attendance in the league, with an average of 10,845. The next season, the average attendance was 6,539.

Ballpark

The Estadio Universitario is a multi-use stadium located in Caracas, Venezuela. The stadium holds 22,690 people and was built in 1952.

This stadium forms part of the Central University of Venezuela campus and was designed by architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva. It is considered a masterpiece of urban planning and was declared a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO in 2000. Caracas played in this stadium until the 2022/2023 season. For the 2023/2024 season the club moved to the brand new Monumental Stadium of Caracas Simón Bolívar.

Championships

Season	Manager	Record	Series score	Runner-up
1947–48 [a]	José Antonio Casanova	25–14	—	Sabios de Vargas
1948–49 [a]	José Antonio Casanova	18–13	—	Navegantes del Magallanes
1951–52 [a]	José Antonio Casanova	41–15	—	Navegantes del Magallanes
1952–53	Martín Dihigo	32–25	—	Navegantes del Magallanes
1956–57	Clay Bryant	26–26	4–1	Industriales de Valencia
1961–62	Regino Otero	31–21	4–1	Indios de Oriente
1963–64	Regino Otero	26–24	4–3	Industriales de Valencia
1966–67	Regino Otero	32–29	3–2	Tiburones de La Guaira
1967–68	Regino Otero	37–23	—	Tigres de Aragua
1972–73	Oswaldo Virgil	37–33	4–1	Águilas del Zulia
1977–78	Felipe Rojas Alou	40–30	4–3	Águilas del Zulia
1979–80	Felipe Rojas Alou	46–23	4–1	Cardenales de Lara
1980–81	Jim Leyland / Alfonso Carrasquel	33–27	4–0	Cardenales de Lara
1981–82	Alfonso Carrasquel	33–33	4–1	Cardenales de Lara
1986–87	Bill Plummer	33–31	4–0	Tiburones de La Guaira
1987–88	Bill Robinson	33–27	4–2	Tigres de Aragua
1989–90	Phil Regan	32–38	4–3	Cardenales de Lara
1994–95	Phil Regan / Pompeyo Davalillo	33–27	4–2	Águilas del Zulia
2005–06	Carlos Subero	35–27	4–1	Tigres de Aragua
2009–10	Dave Hudgens	41–22	4–3	Navegantes del Magallanes
2022–23	José Alguacil	36–19	4–2	Tiburones de la Guaira
Total championships			21

Notes

• ^a Won the title as Cervecería Caracas. The team changed owners and name in 1952, but the franchise official name, Caracas Base Ball Club, remained constant during all sale transactions in 1949, 1952 and 2001.

Caribbean World Series titles

On February 9, 1982, the Leones earned Venezuela's third Caribbean World Series and the franchise's first, by defeating Dominican Republics's Leones del Escogido with a 3-1 score. The Leones ended the series with a record of 5 wins and 1 defeat. The Venezuelan team, with Alfonso Carrasquel at the helm, gained the championship title with a 5-1 record. Leones was led by catcher and Series MVP Baudilio Díaz (.412 BA, two home runs, five RBI, .500 OBP, .765 SLG), CF Tony Armas (.375, six RBI) and LF Luis Salazar (six runs, four stolen bases). The pitching staff was led by Luis Leal, who posted a 2-0 record with a 2.08 ERA and 10 strikeouts and a in 13.0 innings of work. Behind him were Bud Black (1-0, 1.29), Dennis Burtt (1-0, one save, seven SO in 10⅔ innings) and Tom Dixon (nine scoreless innings in Game 7). Venezuela also featured 2B Steve Sax, SS Ron Gardenhire, 1B Danny Garcia, 3B Leonardo Hernández, pinch-hitter Andrés Galarraga and pitcher Joe Cowley, among others.

On February 7, 2006, the Leones earned Venezuela's first Caribbean World Series title in 16 years, by defeating the Tigres del Licey of the Dominican Republic with a 5-4 score in the last game; this left the Leones with a record of six wins and no defeats at the 2006 Caribbean Series, ahead of Licey's four wins and two defeats record. With the victory, the Leones won Venezuela's sixth Caribbean Series title, and the franchise's second after the 1982 Caribbean Series. This also marked the first time a Venezuelan team sweeps the Caribbean Series, a feat previously accomplished only by teams from Cuba (Almendares in 1949, Habana in 1952, and Cienfuegos in 1960), from Puerto Rico (Cangrejeros de Santurce in 1953 and 2000, and Senadores de San Juan in 1995) and from the Dominican Republic (Tigres del Licey in 1971, 1977 and 1991, and Águilas Cibaeñas in 1998).

Retired uniform numbers

1 Pompeyo Davalillo SS Retired

2 Víctor Davalillo OF Retired

6 Gonzalo Márquez 1B Retired

8 Urbano Lugo P Retired

11 Luis Aparicio SS Retired

12 César Tovar IF Retired

17 Alfonso "Chico" Carrasquel SS Retired

20 Antonio Armas OF Retired

25 Baudilio Díaz C Retired

23 Omar Vizquel SS Retired 2008

41 Andrés Galarraga 1B Retired 2008

* Retired by VPBL

Current roster

Leones del Caracas 2020-2021 Roster
Players				Coaches
Pitchers 22 Luis Amaya 82 Edwuin Bencomo 74 Yoimer Camacho 61 Francisco Carrillo 40 Felix Carvallo -- Anthony Castro 77 Alejandro Chacín 68 Jervic Chávez 81 Luis Chirinos 71 Franklin Dacosta 52 Edgmer Escalona 00 Juan Gonzalez 39 Norwith Gudino 83 Anjul Hernandez -- Wilkel Hernandez 65 Alsis Herrera 36 Ronald Herrera 75 Daniel Hurtado -- Jhaner Linares 67 Frank López 86 Jaime Lugo 34 Loiger Padrón 63 Carlos Quevedo 87 Eduard Reyes 79 Jesus Rodriguez 55 Miguel Socolovich -- Albert Suárez 76 José Torres 48 Jesus Zambrano [1] updated on 11 May 2021		Catchers 85 Gabriel Bracamonte -- Albert Cordero 78 Alfredo González 89 Jhonny Pereda 58 Keibert Ruiz Infielders 28 Luis Alejandro Basabe -- Harold Castro 05 Ronny Cedeño 66 Andretty Cordero 37 Aldrem Corredor 27 Leonardo Ferrini 04 Jose Garcia 15 Jesús Guzmán 07 Wilfredo Tovar Outfielders 32 Romer Cuadrado 62 Ericson Leonora 73 Alexander Palma 29 Eduard Pinto -- Víctor Reyes 09 José Rondón 22 Jesus Solorzano		Manager -- José Alguacil Coaches -- Wilson Álvarez (Pitching) -- Ramón Castro (Hitting) -- Juan Muñoz (First Base) -- Lipso Nava (Bench) -- Oscar Salazar (Third Base) -- Mauro Zárate (Bullpen) (Coaching staff for 2021-22 season)

See also

• 1953 Caribbean Series
• 1957 Caribbean Series
• 1980 Caribbean Series
• 1982 Caribbean Series
• 2006 Caribbean Series

External links

• Official Website