MIAMI, Nov. 13, 2015 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — Sports and Media Partners, LLC (SMP) and Marlins Park announced today the launch of Serie de las Americas, a first-ever Caribbean Winter baseball tournament that will have the leading teams from the professional Winter Baseball Leagues in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic facing off on November 21st and 22nd. Las Aguilas Cibaenas and Los Tigres de Licey from the Dominican Republic will compete versus Los Navegantes del Magallanes and Cardenales de Lara from Venezuela for the Championship Trophy.
These teams will play double-headers on each day that will be official games. This will be the first time in history that teams from the Caribbean Confederation play inter-league games in the United States. The series is sponsored by the Dominican Republic Tourism Board, Hennessy and Miccosukee Resort & Gaming, and will be hosted at Marlins Park, home of the Miami Marlins and the 2017 MLB All Star Game.
“These games will give Latino baseball fans the opportunity to see their favorite teams in the U.S. And we are delighted to work with the Marlins to deliver this exciting baseball tournament,” said Lou Melendez, Managing Partner of SMP.
The game schedule is as follows: Day One, Saturday, Nov. 21st, the two Venezuelan teams, Navegantes del Magallanes and the Cardenales de Lara will face off at 1 p.m., and at 6 p.m., Los Tigres del Licey and Las Aguilas Cibaenas will take center stage. On Day Two, Sunday, Nov. 22nd, the two losing teams will meet up at 2 p.m., and the winners will face off at 7 p.m for the Championship Game. The victor of this match will be crowned as the Serie de las Americas Champion.
“We are extremely pleased to host the first Serie de las Americas event at Marlins Park, providing our local community the opportunity to see teams from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela,” said Claude Delorme, Miami Marlins Executive Vice President of Operations and Events. “This event looks to build off of the excitement and passion of fans at the World Baseball Classic in 2013. Fans can expect great baseball with incredible energy at our state-of-the-art facility”.
Top players who will participate in the series have been announced. From Cardenales de Lara: Edwin Escobar, Cesar Itzuris, Yoanner Negrin, Yoervis Medina and Cesar Jimenez. From Los Navegantes de Magallanes: Pedro Hernandez, Jose Mijares, Ronny Cedeno, Mario Lisson and Abel Nieves. From Los Tigres de Licey: Emilio Bonifacio, Esmil Rogers and Domingo Santana. And from Las Aguilas Cibaenas: Rafael Ynoa, Francisco Pena, T.J. Pena, Roberto Hernandez and Danny Santana.
The tournament will include an array of musical entertainment. The national anthems will be performed by GRAMMY® winner Mariana Vega (Venezuela), five-time GRAMMY winner Alfredo Matheus Diez (Venezuela), Alina Vargas (Dominican Republic), Jenny Love (USA), Shantee (USA), and the chart-topping Bachata Heightz (Dominican Republic) who will also sing between games on Sunday, while the Venezuelan duo Pucho y Tucutu will perform between games on Saturday.
The games will be broadcast live in the United States and in key international markets, and will be produced in English and Spanish.
Marlins Park is located at 501 Marlins Way, Miami, FL 33125. Tickets for the series or for individual games can be bought at tickets.com (enter Serie de las Americas), or at the Marlins Park box office.
About Sports and Media Partners LLC
Sports and Media Partners, LLC (SMP) is a company comprised of experienced baseball, event marketing, media and finance professionals which will produce these historic games and other sports programming – Louis Melendez, formerly with MLB as VP of International Baseball Operations and currently Senior Advisor to MLB, is the Managing Partner, and Ralph Paniagua, a pioneer in Hispanic Sports Marketing and the founder and publisher of LatinoBaseball.com.
About Marlins Park
Marlins Park is a state-of-the-art retractable roof ballpark located in the heart of Miami, on the historic Orange Bowl site. The ballpark features unobstructed views of Miami’s skyline made possible by six operable glass panels. Conceived as an abstraction of “water merging with land” symbolic of Miami’s coastal landscape, Marlins Park offers fans the most incredible baseball experience where beauty and baseball merge. Marlins Park is the first retractable roof structure in the world to earn LEED Gold Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council
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