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Friday 23 OctOber 2020 locAl
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Short history of the beginnings of baseball in Aruba

the Hall of Fame in Cooper- the early ‘50s; as umpires, San Nicolas played initially Ramblers”), that would play
stown. The Aparicios were managers even as players. under the name “Camel” for the first time ever in the
evidently very good at Among these were Nestor and “Barnes` Ramblers” Amateur Baseball World
sports. Raúl had two broth- “Pantin” Guerrero who also the only team consisting of Series that took place in
ers who also played base- had a musical band. Per- Lago Colony players to par- Havana, Cuba in Septem-
ball, René and Roman. haps not so coincidentally, ticipate in the Lago Sport ber. Surprisingly, Aruba won
Rosendo, his only brother many of Pantin’s players Park championships. “Red two of its six games and
who did not play baseball were also musicians. Luthai Rock Cola” was formed in became the darling of the
became a professional Pantophlet who umpired Oranjestad in 1950. Havana fans. Nell Harms
soccer player in the Ven- many years was a well- of the Aruban team was
ezuelan league. Rosendo known drummer. Gaston In 1952 the team Pepsi named the “Outstanding
was nicknamed “Cabeza Hazel was a bongo player; Cola became “Nesbitt’s” player of the week” for his
de oro” (golden head) for José Bryson and the broth- and had players of seven performance against Hon-
a memorable header he ers Nicholson, Teddy and countries, including two duras. He allowed just two
scored to win a game for Julio, all played several in- American expats from hits, struck out 15 and hit
his team. struments. Lago Colony. the only homerun of the
ORANJESTAD — Baseball game. Joe Cambria, the
was played on the island Interestingly, it was in Aruba In San Nicolas, baseball In 1950 a group of promi- famous scout for the Wash-
of Aruba in the 1930’s, but that Luis Aparicio played was played on the grounds nent members of the Aru- ington Senators offered
only by United States ex- his first game outside of next to where the LAGO ba community founded him a contract, but Nel
patriates working for LAGO Venezuela. This took place Sport Park (now Laveist the Amateur Baseball Bond was not interested, but the
and living inside the LAGO in 1950 when he played Sport Park) was officially in- of Aruba (ABBA) to give next year, at the Amateur
colony. Jim Bluejacket, the shortstop for the school he augurated in March 1941. structure to the manage- Baseball World Series in Ca-
legendary US Indian who attended. Later he played ment of the sport and be- racas, Venezuela, Nel and
had played in two major for “Cabimas” in a double- During the WWII years, came the organizers of of- Ruben Phillips did sign and
league teams, worked for header of the Venezuelan baseball got a big lift from ficial championship games. in 1954 they played profes-

LAGO during 14 years and Western League. These of- the influx of Puerto Rican While maintaining the ex- sional baseball the Geor-
was a key factor in the ficial games of the league and US soldiers stationed isting teams in a league gia-Florida League and the
growth of the popularity of were authorized to be here. As LAGO was play- that was referred to as A- Texas-New Mexico League.
the game in the colony. played in Aruba by the ing a very important role in class, ABBA established a They were the first Arubans
There is no record of Blue- Professional Baseball Or- the struggle against Hitler, B-class league in which the to play professionally, but
jacket ever playing outside ganization of Venezuela. it was able to get all the “Budweiser’ and “Braves” not the only ones.
the colony. Several others who played sports equipment needed played the first years.
in those games have also here to allow more people During the games in Ha-
Outside the colony, the been enshrined. to participate. vana, contacts were made
game of baseball was in- with the organizers of Little
troduced to Aruba by Ven- Luis Aparicio’s father was In the ‘40s only the Lago League Baseball in Cuba
ezuelan immigrants and the super popular Luis “El Sports Park organized which eventually resulted
sailors on the Venezuelan Grande” (the great one) baseball championship in the introduction of Lit-
fishing boats that used Aru- after whom the base- games. The first teams to tle League in Aruba. Little
ba as their home port. They ball stadium in Maracai- participate were Artraco, League of Aruba has been
formed pick-up teams and bo is named. He and his (Aruba Trading Co.), Esso extremely successful: It has
played games on Sundays brother owned the pro- Garage and Botica San produced many players
on an open field behind fessional baseball teams Lucas. In 1945 Venezuelan who earned baseball schol-
what is now the Court of “Gavilanes” which later employees of the Lago re- arships at universities in the
Justice. One of the Venezu- became the “Aguilas”, finery participated under United States, a few who
elans that comes to mind is and the “Cabimas”. the name of “Cafenol”, a played professionally in the
Felix Garrido, grandfather very popular Venezuelan Netherlands and different
of our current Prime-Minis- coffee brand. Two other countries in the Caribbe-
ter. groups of Venezuelan im- an and five who reached
migrants formed the teams By 1952 Aruba became a the major leagues: Calvin
“Cerveceria” (named after member of the Internation- Maduro, Eugene Kingsale,
the iconic team Cervece- al Amateur Baseball Asso- Radhames Dijkhoff, Sydney
ria Caracas), and “Ven- ciation and fielded a team Ponson, and Xander Bo-
ezuela”, although not all managed by Joe Proterra, gaerts one of the brightest
members of these teams (former pitcher of “Barnes’ stars of Boston Red Sox.q
were Venezuelans. This was
also the year that the team
sponsored by Roxy Café
started to play as “Dodg-
ers”.
Dodgers became the dom-
inant baseball powerhouse
till the 1950s.

In the early ‘40s, another Other teams that entered
group, mostly immigrants the baseball scene in the
from the Dominican Re- late 1940s: Pepsi Cola
In the late 30s the leader of public also became very (Oranjestad) and St. Thom-
this group was Raúl Apari- active with pickup teams. as Boys (former students of
cio, a cousin of Luis Apari- Some of these remained St. Thomas College, Oran-
cio who is now enshrined in active in baseball well into jestad). “Baby Ruth” in