1971 Caribbean Series

The XIV edition of the Caribbean Series (Serie del Caribe) baseball tournament was played in 1971. It was held from February 6 through February 11 with the champions teams from Dominican Republic, Tigres del Licey; Mexico, Naranjeros de Hermosillo; Puerto Rico, Cangrejeros de Santurce, and Venezuela, Tiburones de La Guaira. The format consisted of 12 games, each team facing the other teams twice, and the games were played at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which boosted capacity to 18.000 seats. The first pitch was thrown by Bowie Kuhn, by then the Commissioner of Major League Baseball.

Summary

Dominican Republic captured the competition with an undefeated record of 6-0, behind a strong effort by manager Manny Mota, who also led the Series hitters with a .579 batting average (11-for-19) and won Most Valuable Player honors. The pitching support came from Chris Zachary (2-0), Reggie Cleveland (1-0), and reliever Pedro Borbón (1-0, two saves). Other key players for Licey included Jim Beauchamp, Carmen Fanzone, César Gerónimo, Elvio Jiménez and Rafael Robles.

Puerto Rico, Mexico and Venezuela shared the second place with a 2-4 record.

Puerto Rico's team, managed by Frank Robinson, was a huge favorite to win the Series, and thanks to a roster loaded with prominent players like Sandy Alomar, Don Baylor, Elrod Hendricks, Reggie Jackson, Buck Martinez, Jerry Morales, Tony Pérez, Juan Pizarro and Zoilo Versalles, but the team faded just after the first half.

For the first time, a representing team of Mexico took part in this tournament. Hermosillo was guided by Maury Wills and the offensive support came from Celerino Sánchez, who led the Series hitters in home runs (3) and RBI (9). Other noted players were Héctor Espino, Jim Ray, Vicente Romo and Sergio Robles.

Graciano Ravelo managed the Venezuela club, which was clearly led by Pat Kelly (.381 BA, 2 HR, .714 slugging) and Ángel Bravo (7-for-21, .333 BA), while Leo Cárdenas hit .409 (9-for-22) for an otherwise weak offense, bottomed out by Ed Spiezio (3-for-19, .158 BA), José Cardenal (4-for-22, .182 BA) and Enzo Hernández (6-for-23, .264). George Lauzerique (1-0, 1.64 ERA, 7 SO) was a high point in a pitching rotation headed by Larry Gura (0-1, 4.00), Steve Barber (0-2, 5.56) and Aurelio Monteagudo (0-1, 9.58). Orlando Peña (1-0, 3.00 ERA) provided a solid support in three relief appearances.

Final standings Club W L W/L % GB Dominican Republic 6 0 1.000   – Mexico 2 4   .333 4.0 Puerto Rico 2 4   .333 4.0 Venezuela 2 4   .333 4.0 Individual leaders Player/Club Statistic Manny Mota/DOM Batting average .579 Celerino Sánchez/MEX Home runs     3 Celerino Sánchez/MEX Runs batted in     9 Teodoro Martínez/DOM Runs     9 Manny Mota/DOM Hits   11 Pat Kelly/VEN Doubles     2 Sandy Alomar/PRI Triples     2 Tony Pérez/PRI Stolen bases     2 Chris Zachary/DOM Wins     2 George Lauzerique/VEN Strikeouts     7 Chris Zachary/DOM Earned run average 0.56 Chris Zachary/DOM Innings pitched   16 Pedro Borbón/DOM Federico Olivo/DOM Saves     2 Awards Manny Mota/DOM Most Valuable Player Manny Mota/DOM Manager