Suvarna Garge (Editor)

Panamanian Professional Baseball League

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Sport
  
Baseball

CEO
  
Guy Nacchio

No. of teams
  
4

Founded
  
2001

Director
  
Lauren Flores

Country
  
Panama

The Panamanian Professional Baseball League (Spanish: Béisbol Profesional de Panamá), currently known as Probeis, is a winter professional baseball league consisting of four teams.

Contents

History

Founded in 1946, the PPBL joined Organized Baseball in 1948 and operated continuously until 1972.
A new Panamanian baseball league started the 2001–02 season as Probeis (Liga Profesional de Béisbol de Panamá), but it lasted that season only. By 2010, Los Angeles Dodgers related businessmen restarted the league as LPB (Professional Baseball League), but had poor logistics and operations lasted only one season.
In 2011 Probeis made its second run since 2001.

Champion teams

  • 1948–49: Spur Cola
  • 1949–50: Carta Vieja
  • 1950–51: Spur Cola (2)
  • 1951–52: Carta Vieja (2)
  • 1952–53: Chesterfield
  • 1953–54: Carta Vieja (3)
  • 1954–55: Carta Vieja (4)
  • 1955–56: Chesterfield (2)
  • 1956–57: Balboa
  • 1957–58: Carta Vieja (5)
  • 1958–59: Coclé
  • 1959–60: Marlboro

    • Notes

  • The Carta Vieja, Chesterfield, Comercios and Marlboro teams represented Panama City, while Spur Cola was based in Colon.
  • The Azucareros and Cerveza Balboa teams were sponsored from the cities of Aguadulce and Balboa, respectively.
  • More of the games were played at Estadio Olímpico de Panamá in Panama City.

    • Carta Vieja Yankees

    The league's champion team played in the Caribbean Series in its first stage from 1949 through 1960, before Fidel Castro dismantled the Cuban Winter League and replaced it with a new amateur circuit.

    The Carta Vieja Yankees, one of the most distinguished clubs in the circuit, won five titles spanning 1950–58 and also captured the 1950 Caribbean Series, to become the only Panamanian team to a win a Series championship in the 20th Century.

    Throughout its 12-year history, the team featured players as Wayne Blackburn, Chet Brewer, Webbo Clarke, Jim Cronin, Jerry Davie, Carl Duser, Marion Fricano, Milt Graff, Bill Harris, Spook Jacobs, Connie Johnson, Spider Jorgensen, Héctor López, Bobby Prescott, Humberto Robinson, Jean-Pierre Roy, Pat Scantlebury, Billy Shantz, Joe Tuminelli and Jim Umbricht, among others.

    2001–02

    Four teams participated during the 2001–02 season: Canaleros de Panamá, Macheteros de Azuero, Roneros de Carta Vieja and Tiburones Atlas de Panamá Oeste. Carta Vieja was the champion team, while Olmedo Sáenz won the batting title (.331) and Miguel Gómez was the best pitcher (5-0).

    2011-12

    Roneros Carta Vieja won their second Probeis title.

    2012-13

    Caballos de Coclé won first title and Javier Castillo was selected as MVP with 0.397 Avg.
    Caballos de Coclé as champion represented Panama in the first Serie Latinoamericana held in Veracruz, Mexico, reaching third place.
    Industriales de Herrera replaced Diablicos de Azuero for the 2012 tournament.

    Current teams

  • Caballos de Coclé
  • Panamá Metro
  • Nacionales de Panamá
  • Aguilas Metropolitanas de Panamá

    • LPB 2010

    In 2010, Major League Baseball authorized Augusto Ávila Penabad and Rafael Ávila (at the time a vice president with the Los Angeles Dodgers) to run a new winter professional baseball league. The Liga Profesional de Beisbol or known as LPB started under the sponsorship of Claro with four teams: Los Santos, Herrera, Veraguas and Panama. The league lasted only one season due to poor logistics, economics and no support from main TV stations. Only UHF RCM Television bought the TV rights.
    Season ran from December 12, 2009 until February 15, 2010.

    References

    Panamanian Professional Baseball League Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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