It’s time to play ball again in Puerto Rico
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Winter league baseball returns to Puerto Rico for the first time in nearly two years this evening, with the reborn Santurce Cangrejeros playing host to the Gigantes de Carolina at historic Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan.
Financial and organizational problems caused the winter league to suspend operations last season for the first time in 70 years, which left many big-league teams scrambling. Dozens of major league prospects or rehabbing stars use the four Latin American winter leagues -- there are also leagues in Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and Mexico -- as an offseason proving ground.
The Puerto Rican league is among the most storied of the winter circuits. Native sons Roberto Clemente, ‘Pudge’ Rodriguez, Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran and Roberto Alomar all played there, as did Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Cal Ripken Jr.
The six-team Puerto Rican league is scheduled to play a 42-game regular-season schedule before deciding its champion in January playoffs. That champion then advances in February to the Caribbean Series in Mexicali, Mexico, where it will meet the champions of the three other winter leagues. Those circuits all began their regular seasons in mid-October.
-- Kevin Baxter