Venezuela celebrates hometown heroes

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuelans are celebrating their homegrown baseball heroes as a record contingent of players from the country heads into the World Series with the Detroit Tigers and San Francisco Giants.

Nine Venezuelans, including five with the Giants, will feature in the series starting tonight, the most ever.

"All the time there are more and better Venezuelan players in the major leagues," said Alberto Mendoza, who was among dozens of fans at a restaurant in Caracas celebrating the Giants' clinching win over the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Championship Series on Monday night. "Venezuela is a power in baseball."

Fans in Caracas cheered the Giants with shouts and toasting glasses of beer, in large part because the game's star was one of their own, Marco Scutaro, the veteran second baseman who was named the most valuable player of the series.

While the Giants embraced and jumped for joy on the rain-drenched infield, a Venezuelan flag was unfurled and held up by Scutaro's wife as he received his trophy.

Photos of Scutaro celebrating in the downpour were published on the front pages of Venezuelan newspapers. The sports daily Meridiano ran the headline "Venezuela Grows Giant."

Triple-Crown winner

Venezuelans playing for the Tigers are led by Triple Crown-winner Miguel Cabrera.

"It's a great year for Venezuela. Our flag is flying high, 2012 is a historic year," said Jose Manuel Blanco, a university student who was wearing a jersey for the Navegantes del Magallanes, the team Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval plays for in the off-season.

He noted this season Venezuelans have achieved various baseball feats. In addition to Cabrera's stellar batting record, Felix Hernandez pitched a perfect game for the Seattle Mariners and the New York Mets' Johan Santana pitched a no-hitter.

Scutaro is the third Venezuelan to be named the most valuable player in a major league championship series, following Jesus "Manny" Trillo of the Philadelphia Phillies in 1980 and Eduardo Perez of the Braves in 1999.

Julio Venegas, a woodworker in Caracas, said his favourite team has always been the Yankees but he enjoys watching any major league team when Venezuelans are playing.

"I'd like the Tigers to win," Venegas said, adding Cabrera deserves to be named the MVP of the year.

Baseball has long been the most popular sport in Venezuela, which shares that passion with other Caribbean countries such as the Dominican Republic and Cuba. While the Dominican Republic boasts the most foreign players in Major League Baseball, the number of Venezuelan players has doubled since 2000 and this season reached 95, the highest ever.

-- The Associated Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 24, 2012 C2