Tiburones de La Guaira

Tiburones de La Guaira
Information
League	Venezuelan Professional Baseball League
Location	La Guaira
Ballpark	Estadio Fórum La Guaira
Year founded	1962
League championships	1964-1965, 1965-1966, 1968-1969, 1970-1971, 1982-1983, 1984-1985, 1985-1986
Uniforms
Home Away

The Tiburones de La Guaira (English: La Guaira Sharks) are a baseball team in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League. Based in the city of La Guaira, they play their home games in Estadio Fórum La Guaira and have won seven national championships since their founding in 1962.

History[]

In 1962 the Licoreros de Pampero team, which was founded in 1955, was sold for the symbolic price of one Bolívar by his owner Alejandro Hernández to José Antonio Casanova, who was considered the greatest Venezuelan manager at the time. The new team changed its name to Tiburones de la Guaira.

Casanova, who was also the first manager of the team, did not have enough financial resources to go through an entire season. He then talked to his friend, Dr. Jesús Morales Valarino, who suggested an alliance with an important group of personalities and traders such as Manuel Malpica, Jose Antonio Diaz, Mario Gomez y Pablo Diaz. In that moment Tiburones de la Guaira was born, taking the field for first time ever in the 1962–1963 season. It was Morales' idea to take the team to the city of La Guaira, in order to take advantage of a city with no team yet numerous baseball fans.

In their first season, the Tiburones finished with a 23-19 record, missing the finals disputed between the Leones del Caracas and Industriales de Valencia. The team struggled in 1963–1964, ending third with a 23-27 record, being locked out of contention. La Guaira club would have to wait until its third season to win the first league championship, in a five game confrontation against the Leones.

La Guaira was managed by Casanova until that year, and had remarkable players such as MLB Hall of Famers Luis Aparicio and Rollie Fingers, and Ángel Bravo, José Herrera and Elio Chacón as top Venezuelan figures. Casanova's contract expired in 1965 and the board of directors decided to finish the work relationship buying all his stock. Then Pedro Padrón Panza, who was among the original founders, bought all the stock to become the single owner.

At the time, Padrón worked hard to settle an important base of players which was later known as "La Guerrilla", because –no matter the score of a game– they were a never-surrender bunch of players who gave all to the cause. Some notable names includes the likes of Ozzie Guillén, Carlos Martinez, Gustavo Polidor, Luis Salazar and Luis Mercedes Sánchez, among others.

Padrón suffered a long illness starting in the early 1990s, which affected the level of his beloved team as well. He died in 1999, aged 78, leaving the control of the franchise to his son, Pedro Padrón Briñez, also known as "Peruchito". Nevertheless, Padrón Jr. and his son died in the 1999 Vargas tragedy that killed tens of thousands of people.

Marked by the death of three generations –past, present and future– of the team, the Tiburones tried to repeat their glorious performances of the 1970s and 1980s in the 2000–2001 season under manager and former player Luis Salazar, almost clinching a playoff spot. Since then, the Tiburones has become a competitive force again in the Venezuela league, missing the final series by taking a loss in an extra game in the 2008–2009 season against the Tigres de Aragua, and reaching the final series in 2011–2012, which they end up losing again to Aragua in six games.

Championship titles/Managers[]

• 1964–1965: José Antonio Casanova
• 1965–1966: Tony Pacheco
• 1968–1969:
• 1970–1971:
• 1982–1983: Oswaldo Virgil
• 1984–1985: Aurelio Monteagudo
• 1985–1986: José Martínez

Caribbean Series records[]

Year	W	L	W/L %	GB	Finish	Notes
1971	2	4	.333	4	2nd place	Triple tie
1983	4	2	.667	1	2nd place
1985	2	4	.333	3	3rd place	Tied
1986	3	3	.500	1	2nd place	Tied

Team highlights[]

• 1964–1965 : Darold Knowles won the pitching Triple Crown
• 2013–2014 : Alex Cabrera became the first batting Triple Crown winner in VPBL history

VPBL regular season leaders[]

Hitting[]

Batting average

Season	Player	Total
1966–1967	Tony Curry	.309
1973–1974	Al Bumbry	.367
1974–1975	Al Bumbry	.354
1988–1989	Carlos Martínez	.331
1991–1992	Chad Curtis	.338
2011–2012		.349
2013–2014	Alex Cabrera	.391

Home runs

Season	Player	Total
1977–1978	Clint Hurdle	18
1982–1983	Darryl Strawberry	12
1995–1996	Carlos Martínez	7
2002–2003		10
2008–2009	Max Ramírez	15
2013–2014	Alex Cabrera	21

Runs batted in

Season	Player	Total
1962–1963	Dave Roberts	34
1965–1966	John Bateman	38
1981–1982	Gary Rajsich	48
1991–1992	Chad Curtis	37
1995–1996	Carlos Martínez	39
2000–2001	Chris Jones	48
2013–2014	Alex Cabrera	59

Pitching[]

Wins

Season	Player	Total
1964–1965	Darold Knowles *	13
1965–1966	Marcelino López	12
1966–1967	Gene Brabender **	13
1967–1968	Eddie Watt ***	12
1972–1973	Jim Rooker	13
1974–1975	Tom House	10
1979–1980	Odell Jones	11
2002–2003	Bill Pulsipher	6

   * Tied with Lew Krausse (Caracas)
  ** Tied with Jim McGlothlin (Valencia)
 *** Tied with Diego Seguí (Caracas)

Earned run average

Season	Player	Total
1962–1963	Dale Willis	2.03
1964–1965	Darold Knowles	2.37
1965–1966	Marcelino López	1.57
1969–1970	Mike Hedlund	0.75
1976–1977	Steve Luebber	2.59

Strikeouts

Season	Player	Total
1962–1963	George Brunet	89
1964–1965	Darold Knowles	155
1966–1967	Gene Brabender	147
1974–1975	Doug Bird	82
1979–1980	Odell Jones	103
1985–1986	Odell Jones	70
1998–1999	Lou Pote	67

Current roster[]

Tiburones de La Guaira 2020-21 Roster
Players				Coaches
Pitchers 20 Ruddy Acosta 71 Gustavo Armas 47 Sandy Báez 75 Johan Belisario 18 Jorgan Cavanerio 83 Rafael Cova 53 Victor Diaz 44 Anthony Escobar 82 Ofreidy Gomez 67 Arnaldo Hernandez 64 Nelson Hernandez 29 Eudis Idrogo 45 Gregory Infante 77 Eduardo Jiménez 33 Kristhiam Linares 23 Hector Mayora 73 Henry Medina 20 Christian Mejias 62 Yosmel Naranjo 70 Antonio Noguera 58 Hassan Peña 30 Julio Pinto 63 Joel Pinto 60 Wuilder Rodriguez 66 Manuel Rodriguez 26 Brayan Salaya 72 Jhonathan Torres 35 Angel Ventura [1] updated on 8 June 2021		Catchers 12 Alexander Alvarez 17 Juan Apodaca 74 Arvicent Pérez Infielders -- Luis Bandes -- Samir Duenez 37 Edgar Durán 42 Jonathan Galvez 02 Maikel Garcia 23 Nestor Heredia 36 Carlos Herrera 40 José Martínez 16 Daniel Mayora 52 Kelvin Melean 05 Heiker Meneses 65 Jairo Perez 39 Eduardo Torrealba 81 Juan Torres Outfielders 56 Yeikel Blandin 43 Lorenzo Cedrola 78 Yhoswar Garcia 04 Diego Infante 27 Teodoro Martínez 54 Junior Sosa 99 Danry Vásquez		Manager -- Dennis Malavé Coaches -- Rigo Beltrán (Pitching) -- Enrique González (Bullpen) -- Luis Hernández (First Base) -- Jackson Melián (Hitting) -- José Moreno (Bench) -- Liu Rodríguez (Third Base) (Coaching staff for 2021-22 season)

^[1]

Major League alumni[]

All-time foreign players[]

Sources: PuraPelota.com

Retired numbers[]

•   3 Luis Salazar
•   8 Ángel Bravo
• 11 Luis Aparicio
• 13 Ozzie Guillén
• 14 Gustavo Polidor
• 15 Robert Marcano
• 40 Carlos Martínez
• 41 Aurelio Monteagudo

See also[]

• Tiburones de La Guaira players
• Venezuelan Professional Baseball League

References[]

External links[]

• Official Site (Spanish)
• Museum on Line (Spanish)