The Latin American Series (''Spanish: Serie Latinoamericana'') was a baseball competition that annually gathers the champions of the professional winter baseball leagues (summer in the case of Curaçao) from the countries that are part of the Latin American Professional Baseball Association (ALBP). In the case of Mexico, the representative is the champion of Liga Invernal Veracruzana. Often, teams who qualify for this competition receive loan players from other teams in their respective leagues in order to improve their country's chance of winning.

History

On February 10, 2012, the then president of the

Colombian Professional Baseball League The Colombian Professional Baseball League ( es, Liga Profesional de Béisbol Colombiano, links=no or LPB), is a professional baseball league based in Colombia. It is a five-team winter league that plays during the Major League Baseball offseason ...

, together with executives of

Liga Invernal Veracruzana The Veracruz Winter League (Spanish: Liga Invernal Veracruzana de Béisbol Profesional) is a professional baseball winter league, representing the Mexican state of Veracruz, taking place between the months of October and January. It is currently ...

, organized the Mexico-Colombia International Baseball Series between the champions of both competitions, where the Colombian champions, Toros de Sincelejo and Veracruz champions, Brujos de Los Tuxtlas, met in a 3-game series at Estadio Once de Noviembre in

Cartagena, Colombia Cartagena ( , also ), known since the colonial era as Cartagena de Indias (), is a city and one of the major ports on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region, bordering the Caribbean sea. Cartagena's past role as a link ...

, with the Colombian outfit winning two games to one. With the creation of the Latin American Professional Baseball Association in late-2012, the idea of creating a series that would integrate Latin American professional baseball teams materialised. As a result, the first Latin American Series was held from February 1 to 4, 2013 in

Veracruz, Mexico Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

. The first five editions of the series only contained teams from

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

until the first expansion of the competition in 2018. This expansion included

Curaçao Curaçao ( ; ; pap, Kòrsou, ), officially the Country of Curaçao ( nl, Land Curaçao; pap, Pais Kòrsou), is a Lesser Antilles island country in the southern Caribbean Sea and the Dutch Caribbean region, about north of the Venezuela coast ...

, who had just created a professional league, followed by

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

in 2019, with the intention of inviting

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

once a professional league is set up. The rules of the competition match those of the

World Baseball Classic The World Baseball Classic (WBC) is an international baseball tournament sanctioned from 2006 to 2013 by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and after 2013 by World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) in partnership with Major Leagu ...

and the teams wear their respective nation's national team uniform rather than their own for the duration of the series.

Leagues participating

Series

Confirman a Panamá como sede de Latin American Series de Béisbol 2020.
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Championships by team

Championships by nation

All-time table

By team

By nation

Television rights

References

{{reflist

External links

Official Site
Baseball in Central America Baseball competitions in the Americas Baseball in South America