The Veracruz Winter League (Spanish: Liga Invernal Veracruzana de Béisbol Profesional) is a
professional baseball
Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world.
Modern professional ...
Veracruz
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 ...
, taking place between the months of October and January. It is currently made up of 6 teams and the league champion is invited to compete in the
Latin American Series
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 Lat ...
.
History
The league was formed in its current iteration in 2005 by the then-state governor
Fidel Herrera Beltrán
Fidel Herrera Beltrán ( Nopaltepec, Veracruz, March 7, 1949) is a Mexican politician and former governor of the state of Veracruz. A member of Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), he was elected governor in 2004. Prior to that, he was depu ...
as a league representing an area of Mexico not covered by the other two professional leagues, with the
Mexican Pacific League
The Mexican Pacific League (), known as Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacífico for sponsorship reasons or simply LMP for its acronym in Spanish, is a professional baseball winter league based in Northern Mexico. The ten-team regular season schedule ru ...
covering the Pacific side of the country and the
Mexican League
The Mexican League (, ) is a professional baseball league based in Mexico and the oldest running professional league in the country.
The league has 18 teams organized in two divisions, North and South. Teams play 114 games each season. Five te ...
covering inland and southern Mexico, leaving Veracruz unrepresented up to that point. The league ran for eleven seasons before it was put on hold due to lack of funding, with youth competition Veracruz State League, representing the state from that point onwards. In 2018, the president of Tobis de Acayucan, Regina Vázquez Saut, announced the revival of the league, appointing herself as the commissioner, with the first game of the revived league being played on October 27, 2018.
Because the Veracruz Winter League is considered a lower level than the other two professional leagues in Mexico, three of the teams have affiliations with
Mexican League
The Mexican League (, ) is a professional baseball league based in Mexico and the oldest running professional league in the country.
The league has 18 teams organized in two divisions, North and South. Teams play 114 games each season. Five te ...
teams:
League champions
Championships by Team
Baseball in Mexico
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Latin American Series
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 Lat ...
*
Mexican League
The Mexican League (, ) is a professional baseball league based in Mexico and the oldest running professional league in the country.
The league has 18 teams organized in two divisions, North and South. Teams play 114 games each season. Five te ...
*
Mexican Pacific League
The Mexican Pacific League (), known as Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacífico for sponsorship reasons or simply LMP for its acronym in Spanish, is a professional baseball winter league based in Northern Mexico. The ten-team regular season schedule ru ...