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Saturday 18 February 2023 locAl
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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, the after whom the base-
legendary US Indian who ball stadium in Maracai-
had played in two major bo is named. He and his
league teams, worked for brother owned the pro-
LAGO during 14 years and fessional baseball teams
was a key factor in the “Gavilanes” which later
growth of the popularity of became the “Aguilas”,
the game in the colony. and the “Cabimas”. migrants formed the teams managed by Joe Proterra,
There is no record of Blue- “Cerveceria” (named after (former pitcher of “Barnes’
jacket ever playing outside In the early ‘40s, another the iconic team Cervece- Ramblers”), that would play
the colony. group, mostly immigrants ria Caracas), and “Ven- for the first time ever in the
from the Dominican Re- ezuela”, although not all Amateur Baseball World
Outside the colony, the public also became very members of these teams Series that took place in
game of baseball was in- active with pickup teams. were Venezuelans. This was Havana, Cuba in Septem-
troduced to Aruba by Ven- Some of these remained also the year that the team ber. Surprisingly, Aruba won
ezuelan immigrants and active in baseball well into sponsored by Roxy Café two of its six games and
sailors on the Venezuelan the early ‘50s; as umpires, started to play as “Dodg- became the darling of the
fishing boats that used Aru- managers even as players. ers”. Havana fans. Nell Harms
ba as their home port. They Among these were Nestor Dodgers became the dom- of the Aruban team was
formed pick-up teams and “Pantin” Guerrero who also inant baseball powerhouse named the “Outstanding
played games on Sundays had a musical band. Per- till the 1950s. player of the week” for his
on an open field behind haps not so coincidentally, performance against Hon-
what is now the Court of many of Pantin’s players Other teams that entered duras. He allowed just two
Justice. One of the Venezu- were also musicians. Luthai the baseball scene in the hits, struck out 15 and hit
elans that comes to mind is Pantophlet who umpired late 1940s: Pepsi Cola the only homerun of the
Felix Garrido, grandfather many years was a well- (Oranjestad) and St. Thom- game. Joe Cambria, the
of our current Prime-Minis- known drummer. Gaston as Boys (former students of famous scout for the Wash-
ter. Hazel was a bongo player; St. Thomas College, Oran- ington Senators offered
José Bryson and the broth- jestad). “Baby Ruth” in him a contract, but Nel
In the late 30s the leader of ers Nicholson, Teddy and San Nicolas played initially was not interested, but the
this group was Raúl Apari- Julio, all played several in- under the name “Camel” next year, at the Amateur
cio, a cousin of Luis Apari- struments. 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. Texas-New Mexico League.
ball, René and Roman. augurated in March 1941. In 1952 the team Pepsi They were the first Arubans
Rosendo, his only brother Cola became “Nesbitt’s” to play professionally, but
who did not play baseball During the WWII years, and had players of seven not the only ones.
became a professional baseball got a big lift from countries, including two
soccer player in the Ven- the influx of Puerto Rican American expats from During the games in Ha-
ezuelan league. Rosendo and US soldiers stationed Lago Colony. vana, contacts were made
was nicknamed “Cabeza here. As LAGO was play- with the organizers of Little
de oro” (golden head) for ing a very important role in In 1950 a group of promi- League Baseball in Cuba
a memorable header he the struggle against Hitler, nent members of the Aru- which eventually resulted
scored to win a game for it was able to get all the ba community founded in the introduction of Lit-
his team. sports equipment needed the Amateur Baseball Bond tle League in Aruba. Little
here to allow more people of Aruba (ABBA) to give League of Aruba has been
Interestingly, it was in Aruba to participate. structure to the manage- extremely successful: It has
that Luis Aparicio played ment of the sport and be- produced many players
his first game outside of In the ‘40s only the Lago came the organizers of of- who earned baseball schol-
Venezuela. This took place Sports Park organized ficial championship games. arships at universities in the

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