| Tiburones de La Guaira | |||||
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| League | LVBP | ||||
| Location | La Guaira | ||||
| Ballpark | Estadio Universitario | ||||
| Year Founded | 1962 | ||||
| League championships | 1964-1965, 1965-1966, 1968-1969, 1970-1971, 1982-1983, 1984-1985, 1985-1986 | ||||
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The Tiburones de La Guaira (English: La Guaira Sharks) are a baseball team in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League. Based in the city of La Guaira, the Tiburones have won seven national championships since their founding in 1962.
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In 1962 the Pampero team, which was started in 1955, was sold for the symbolic price of one Bolívar by his owner Alejandro Hernández to Jose Antonio Casanova, who was considered the greatest Venezuelan manager at the time. The new team changed its name to Tiburones de la Guaira.
Casanova, who was also first manager of the team, did not have enough financial resources to go through an entire season. He talked to his friend, Dr. Jesus Morales Valariano, who suggested an alliance with an important group of personalities and traders such as: Manuel Malpica, Jose Antonio Diaz, Mario Gomez y Pablo Diaz. In that moment Tiburones de la Guara was born, taking the field for first time ever in the 1962-63 season. It was Morales' idea to take the team to the city of La Guaira, in order to take advantage of a city with no team yet numerous baseball fans.
In their first season, Tiburones finished with a 23-19 record, missing the finals disputed between Caracas and Valencia. La Guaira would have to wait two seasons (1965) to win the first league championship, in a 5 game confrontation against Leones del Caracas.
The team was managed by Casanova until that year, and had remarkable players such as MLB Hall of Famer Luis Aparicio, Angel Bravo, Jose Herrera and Elio Chacon as top Venezuelan figures. Casanova's contract expired in 1965 and the board of directors decided to finish the work relationship buying all his stock. Jose Sanchez was a player for De la Guaira where he was a great second baseman and hitter he went on to play in the U.S. where he played for the Houston Astros.
After clinching the first league title, Casanova retired, and Pedro Padron Panza (who was among the original founders) bought all the stock to become the single owner. Padron worked hard to settle an important base of players which was later known as "La Guerrilla", because -no matter the score of a game- they were a never-surrender group of players who gave 100% on the field. Amongst that group you can find notable names such as Ozzie Guillen, Carlos Cafe Martinez, Gus Polidor, Norman Carrasco, Raul Perez Tovar, Luis Salazar and Luis Mercedes Sanchez Terminator among others.
Padron suffered a long illness starting in the early 90s,which affected the level of his beloved team as well. He died in 1999 (age 78) leaving the control of the team to his son, Pedro Padron Brinez, also known as "Peruchito". However, "Peruchito" and his son (Padron's grandson) died in the 1999 floodings in La Guaira.
Marked by the death of 3 generations -past, present and future- of the team, Tiburones de la Guaira tried to repeat the glorious performances of the 70s and 80s in the 2000-2001 season under manager -and former player- Luis Salazar, almost clinching a playoff spot. Since then, Tiburones has become a competitive force again in the Venezuelan Winter League, missing the final series by taking a loss in an extra game in the 2008-2009 season against Tigres de Aragua.
Despite not having won a championship in more than 20 years, the team has the most loyal fan base of the whole circuit. Tiburones' fans usually give an espectacular atmosphere to every single game they attend, taking gigant flags to the stadium and producing lots of chants. The atmosphere is incremented exponentially when La Guaira plays hard rivals Leones del Caracas.
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