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01/29/2005 Archived Entry: "Caribbean Series History"
By Carlos Fragoso
In next February-6, Mazatlan will host the 47th edition of this series, which started back in 1949 in La Habana, Cuba hosting the winterball champions from Puerto Rico,Panama,Venezuela and Cuba of course.
I will try to get you a little bit in this classic history and thanks to the excellent job done by baseball historian ,my friend Alfonso Araujo who has been working really hard on searching and gathering data of this baseball series.
The Cuban champion Almendares coached by Fermin Guerra,started with a line up including Sam Jethroe in CF, Granny Hammer 2B, Al Gionfrido LF, Monte Irvin RF,Chuck Connors ,"the riffle man" in 1B, Hector Rodriguez believed to be the best Cuban 3B ever,Avelino Caņizares SS, Mike Sandlock C and pitcher Conrado Marrero who reached the big leagues with Washington Senators.
Caracas representing Venezuelan baseball ,presented a line up including,2b Luis Oliveros, 3B Rafael Garcia, SS Alfonso "Chico" Carrasquel , lLF Vidal Lopez ,RF Dalmiro Finol , 1B Ramon Fernandez , CF Hector Benitez , C Enrique Fonseca and Julio Bracho pitching.
Spur Cola Team,representin Panamanian baseball presnted players like,3B Humbert Arthurs , CF Leon Treadway , C Leon Kellman , RF Victor Barnett, SS Sam Bankhead , LF Lester Lockett , 1B Donald Lewis ,2B Orlando Moreno and Pat Scantlebury pitching.
Finally the Mayaguez Indians, reperesntin Puerto Rico, presented a line up, like this Artie Wilson SS , Carlos Bernier LF , Lorenzo "Piper" Davis 2B , Luke Easter 1B , Johny Davis RF , Humberto Marti C , Jorge Rosas CF ,Luis Colon 3B and pitchers.
The champios were local team Almendares and undefeated, while Al Gionfrido resulted the batting champion with .533 avg. after 8 hits in 15 at bat, Monte Irvin with 2 HR the king in this department, also in RBI īs with 11, and pitcher Agapito Mayor with 3 wins the MVP of this first series
