Pablo Antonio Morales Pérez (17 August 1906 – 24 November 1969) was a

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

n baseball executive and promoter.Salón de la Fama y Museo del Béisbol de Venezuela – Noticias
(Spanish). ''MuseodeBeisbol.com.ve''. He served as president of the

International Baseball Federation The International Baseball Federation (IBAF) is the former international governing body of baseball. It has since been superseded by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), and continues to exist as the WBSC's baseball division. Betwee ...

(FIBA) in two periods (1946–1947; 1951–1952), and also took the reins of the organizing committee of the 1944 Amateur World Series held in Caracas. Along with business partner

Oscar Prieto Ortiz Oscar Prieto Ortiz (1905–1983) was a Venezuelan baseball executive and promoter.Caribbean Series The Caribbean Series ( Spanish: ''Serie del Caribe'') is an annual club tournament contested by professional baseball teams in Latin America. It is organized by the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation. The series is normally played in ...

, an international club championship for the Latin American winter leagues. He was also the owner of the

Leones del Caracas The Caracas Base Ball Club C.A., better known by its commercial name as the Leones del Caracas, is a professional baseball team of the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League (LVPB). The owner and sole shareholder of the sports club is Ricardo C ...

club, which would become the most successful baseball team in the

Venezuelan Professional Baseball League The Venezuelan Professional Baseball League (, or LVBP) is the top-level professional baseball league in Venezuela. The league's champion takes part in the Caribbean Series each year. History Background and predecessors Baseball had been play ...

Biography

Born in La Guaira, Vargas, Morales was a widely known figure in Venezuelan baseball from the 1930s to the 1960s. Publicist and avid sport commentator, Morales worked in La Guaira and then in

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

. His total dedication to baseball came in 1936, when he founded the Deportivo Caracas the same year and the Cardenales de La Guaira in 1940, clubs that participated in the ''Liga Nacional de Béisbol'', which had stabilized the first national championship of first division in Venezuela since its inauguration in 1930.Gutiérrez, Daniel; Álvarez, Efraim; Gutiérrez (h), Daniel (2006). ''La Enciclopedia del Béisbol en Venezuela''. LVBP, Caracas. . Likewise, the first ever

Caribbean Series The Caribbean Series ( Spanish: ''Serie del Caribe'') is an annual club tournament contested by professional baseball teams in Latin America. It is organized by the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation. The series is normally played in ...

tournament was the brainchild of Morales and

Oscar Prieto Ortiz Oscar Prieto Ortiz (1905–1983) was a Venezuelan baseball executive and promoter.Serie Interamericana in 1946, which featured the clubs

Brooklyn Bushwicks The Brooklyn Bushwicks were an independent, semi-professional baseball team that played its games almost totally in Dexter Park (Queens), Dexter Park in Queens from 1913 to 1951. They were unique at their time for fielding multi-ethnic Schedule ...

from the United States,

Cervecería Caracas The Caracas Base Ball Club C.A., better known by its commercial name as the Leones del Caracas, is a professional baseball team of the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League (LVPB). The owner and sole shareholder of the sports club is Ricardo C ...

from Venezuela,

Sultanes de Monterrey The Sultanes de Monterrey (English: Monterrey Sultans) are a professional baseball club in the Mexican League (LMB) based in Monterrey, Mexico. Established in 1939 as Carta Blanca, the Sultanes have won ten LMB titles, most recently in 2018. Fro ...

from Mexico, and an All-Star team from Cuba. The US team won each year from 1946 to 1949, while the Venezuelan club won the final tournament in 1950. Morales and Prieto then presented their idea to baseball representatives of Cuba, Panama and Puerto Rico during a meeting held in

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & ...

12-game to be known as the ''Serie del Caribe'', to be launched in Cuba from February 20–25 of 1949. Morales bought the Cervecería Caracas franchise in 1952 and renamed it as a new franchise as

, to run one of the most popular and culturally significant clubs of the

. Morales would remain the sole owner of the team until shortly before his death in 1969, when he included Prieto as legal partner.Un día como hoy debutan los Leones
(Spanish). ''Diario de Los Andes''. Retrieved on August 10, 2015. In August 2015, Pablo Morales was enshrined into the

Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum The Salón de la Fama y Museo del Béisbol Venezolano (in English, the ''Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum'') is a nonprofit institution operated by private interests, which was founded on April 18, 2002, thanks to the vision of Carlos ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morales Perez, Pablo 1906 births 1969 deaths People from Caracas People from La Guaira 20th-century Venezuelan businesspeople 20th-century Venezuelan sportsmen International baseball executives