Estadio del Cibao
With the Dominican Republic winning the 2013 World Baseball Classic (WBC) tournament held in the U.S. by Major League Baseball (MLB), a spotlight now shines on that country’s formidable baseball talent. Die-hard American and international baseball fans can visit Estadio Cibao (Av. Imbert) and see the local professional league team, “Águilas Cibaeñas”, play the island’s other teams. Veteran MLB baseball players, such as Luís Polonia, Tony Peña hijo, Julián Tavárez and José Cabrera, are among those from the Santiago region.
This and other teams are part of the Dominican Republic Professional Baseball League (LIDOM), and they all play a fifty-game round-robin schedule that begins at the middle of October and runs to the end of December. The top four teams engage in another round-robin schedule with 18 games per team from the end of December to the end of January; the top two teams in those standings then play a best-of-nine series for the national title. The league’s champion advances to the Caribbean Series to play against the representatives from Mexico, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico.