News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Weds. July 27, 2022: The Caribbean World Series, Latin America’s biggest tournament for professional baseball, returns in February 2023. After the Dominican Republic hosted the series in 2022, next year’s event will take place in Venezuela in two stadiums, the Forum Stadium in La Guaira and the University Stadium in Caracas. Two new countries will join the tournament, Cuba and Curaçao, bringing the total number of teams in the 2023 Caribbean Series to eight.
What Do We Know?
The 2023 Caribbean World Series will be made up of the winter baseball champions of Mexico, Puerto Rico, Panama, Cuba, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela. Even though Curaçao doesn’t have an active winter league, Venezuela extended the invitation to the Dutch Caribbean island. Curaçao is an exciting addition, considering the country has many talented players who play for teams in the United States, such as Jurickson Profar, who plays for the MLB’s San Diego Padres.
50 percent wow, 50 percent ouch, 100 percent effort. pic.twitter.com/Yjr0L7hFHw
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) July 21, 2021
The 2023 event will mark the first time the Caribbean World Series has featured eight teams, nearly 75-years after Venezuelan baseball entrepreneurs Pablo Morales and Oscar Prieto Ortiz founded it. Cuba has won the tournament several times but lost its spot between 1960 and 2014 and again in 2020.
In 2022, Caimanes de Barranquilla of the Colombian League won the tournament, and the series’ Most Valuable Player (MVP) was named Caimanes infielder Reynaldo Rodríguez. Two years before, Colombia made its first-ever appearance in the series, replacing Cuba, which has regained its spot in next year’s event. The Toros del Este of the Dominican League won the 2020 tournament.
Hype and Culture
One of the most important elements of the Caribbean Series is its entertainment value. Fans don’t just go for the game itself, but for the atmosphere and to spend time with friends and family. Mike Brito, a Cuban-American baseball scout who spent nearly 45 years with the Los Angeles Dodgers and signed Fernando Valenzuela, once said that the Caribbean Series is the most fun out of all the World Series.
If you can’t attend any games, there are still ways to enjoy the tournament, especially since technology has enabled us to follow live action and react to different events in real-time. By following social media accounts like ESPN Caribbean, you’ll be surprised by how many updates you get about the 2023 Caribbean World Series. You can also go to one of the stadiums on game day if you live by them, even if you don’t have tickets, and soak up the atmosphere. Tickets or no tickets, just being outside the stadium will make for a memorable experience.
Additionally, in previous years, international fans have also used online sportsbooks to bet on the tournament. That’s because some sportsbooks offer live betting odds, which allow people to place bets during games, making them feel part of the action. Apart from the Caribbean Series, baseball, in general, is a trending sport in the online gambling world (football and hockey are big, too), so many platforms offer betting guides and insights into how to wager on everything from MLB games to the KBO League.
For the first time, the 2023 Caribbean World Series will be composed of eight teams after Cuba regained its spot and Venezuela invited Curaçao. The tournament always brings fun and excitement, but next year is going to be in a category of its own.
