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local Wednesday 19 april 2023
Short history of the beginnings of baseball in Aruba

(Oranjestad)— Baseball in those games have also
was played on the island been enshrined.
of Aruba in the 1930’s, but
only by United States ex- Luis Aparicio’s father was
patriates working for LAGO the super popular Luis “El
and living inside the LAGO Grande” (the great one)
colony. Jim Bluejacket, after whom the base-
the legendary US Native ball stadium in Maracai-
American who had played bo is named. He and his
in two major league teams, brother owned the pro-
worked for LAGO for 14 fessional baseball teams
years and was a key factor “Gavilanes” which later
in the growth of the popu- became the “Aguilas”,
larity of the game in the and the “Cabimas”.
colony. There is no record migrants formed the teams (former pitcher of “Barnes’
of Bluejacket ever playing In the early ‘40s, another “Cerveceria” (named after Ramblers”), that would play
outside of the colony. group, mostly immigrants the iconic team Cervece- for the first time ever in the
from the Dominican Re- ria Caracas), and “Ven- Amateur Baseball World
Outside the colony, the public also became very ezuela”, although not all Series that took place in
game of baseball was in- active with pickup teams. members of these teams Havana, Cuba in Septem-
troduced to Aruba by Ven- Some of these remained were Venezuelans. This was ber. Surprisingly, Aruba won
ezuelan immigrants and active in baseball well into also the year that the team two of its six games and
sailors on the Venezuelan the early ‘50s; as umpires, sponsored by Roxy Café became the darling of the
fishing boats who used Aru- managers even as players. started to play as “Dodg- Havana fans. Nell Harms
ba as their home port. They Among these was Nestor ers”. Dodgers became the of the Aruban team was
formed pick-up teams and “Pantin” Guerrero, who dominant baseball power- named the “Outstanding
played games on Sundays also had a musical band. house till the 1950s. player of the week” for his
on an open field behind Perhaps not so coinciden- performance against Hon-
what is now the Court of tally, many of Pantin’s play- Other teams that entered duras. He allowed just two
Justice. One of the Venezu- ers were also musicians. the baseball scene in the hits, struck out 15 and hit
elans that comes to mind is Luthai Pantophlet who late 1940s were Pepsi Cola the only homerun of the
Felix Garrido, grandfather umpired many years was (Oranjestad) and St. Thom- game. Joe Cambria, the
of our current Prime Minis- a well-known drummer. as Boys (former students of famous scout for the Wash-
ter. Gaston Hazel was a bongo St. Thomas College, Oran- ington Senators offered
player; José Bryson and the jestad). “Baby Ruth” in him a contract, but Nel
In the late 30s, the leader of brothers Nicholson, Teddy San Nicolas played initially was not interested, but the
this group was Raúl Apari- and Julio, all played sev- under the name “Camel” next year, at the Amateur
cio, a cousin of Luis Apari- eral instruments. and “Barnes` Ramblers”, Baseball World Series in Ca-
cio, who is now enshrined in the only team consisting of racas, Venezuela, Nel and
the Hall of Fame in Cooper- In San Nicolas, baseball Lago Colony players to par- Ruben Phillips did sign and
stown. The Aparicios were was played on the grounds ticipate in the Lago Sport in 1954 they played profes-
evidently very good at next to where the LAGO Park championships. “Red sional baseball the Geor-
sports. Raúl had two broth- Sport Park (now Laveist Rock Cola” was formed in gia-Florida League and the
ers who also played base- Sport Park) was officially in- Oranjestad in 1950. In 1952, Texas-New Mexico League.
ball, René and Roman. augurated in March 1941. the team Pepsi Cola be- They were the first Arubans
Rosendo, his only brother came “Nesbitt’s” and had to play professionally, but
who did not play baseball, During the WWII years, players of seven countries, not the only ones.
became a professional baseball got a big lift from including two American ex-
soccer player in the Ven- the influx of Puerto Rican pats from Lago Colony. During the games in Ha-
ezuelan league. Rosendo and US soldiers stationed vana, contacts were made
was nicknamed “Cabeza here. As LAGO was play- In 1950, a group of promi- with the organizers of Little
de oro” (golden head) for ing a very important role in nent members of the Aru- League Baseball in Cuba
a memorable header he the struggle against Hitler, ba community founded which eventually resulted
scored to win a game for it was able to get all the the Amateur Baseball Bond in the introduction of Lit-
his team. sports equipment needed of Aruba (ABBA) to give tle League in Aruba. Little
here to allow more people structure to the manage- League of Aruba has been
Interestingly, it was in Aruba to participate. ment of the sport and be- extremely successful: It has
that Luis Aparicio played came the organizers of of- produced many players
his first game outside of In the ‘40s only the Lago ficial championship games. who earned baseball schol-

Venezuela. This took place Sports Park organized While maintaining the exist- arships at universities in the
in 1950 when he played baseball championship ing teams in a league that United States, a few who
shortstop for the school he games. The first teams to was referred to as A-class, played professionally in the
attended. Later he played participate were Artraco, ABBA established a B- Netherlands and different
for “Cabimas” in a double- (Aruba Trading Co.), Esso class league in which the countries in the Caribbe-
header of the Venezuelan Garage and Botica San “Budweiser’ and “Braves” an and five who reached
Western League. These of- Lucas. In 1945, Venezuelan played the first years. the major leagues: Calvin
ficial games of the league employees of the Lago re- Maduro, Eugene Kingsale,
were authorized to be finery participated under By 1952, Aruba became a Radhames Dijkhoff, Sydney
played in Aruba by the the name of “Cafenol”, a member of the Internation- Ponson, and Xander Bo-
Professional Baseball Or- very popular Venezuelan al Amateur Baseball Asso- gaerts, one of the brightest
ganization of Venezuela. coffee brand. Two other ciation and fielded a team stars of Boston Red Sox.q
Several others who played groups of Venezuelan im- managed by Joe Proterra,