Carnival Cruise Line....

THE BOYS OF WINTER

AS SNOW FALLS ON FENWAY PARK, LATIN CARIBBEAN BASEBALL LEAGUES ARE JUST WARMING UP.

Most baseball lovers tend to hibernate after the World Series and don't come out again until spring training starts in Florida and Arizona--but not in the Latin West Indies.  From October through February, el beisbol is in fill swing, thanks to the "Boys of Winter" as players are known.

Winter baseball leagues in the tropics--especially in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Venezuela--offer a sunny off-seasonal fix for baseball fanaticos. The season starts out hot and culminates in a fever-pitch playoff called the Caribbean Series (Serie de Caribe).

If you saw the recent film Sugar you know that nowhere in the Caribbean is winter baseball more popular than in the Dominican Republic. More than 800,000 children play some form of organized baseball in this Spanish-speaking nation that shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. Several Major League clubs, understandably, maintaintraining camps in the Dominican Republic, where they hope to discover the next superstar. And in this island nation there are a lot of candidates.

More than 70 native sons of San Pedro de Macoris, including Sammy Sosa, have made their way to the Majors. Other big-time Dominican exports include Juan Marichal, Cesar Cedeno, Manny Mota, Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez, Albert Pujols, David Ortiz, Vladimir Guerrero, Bartolo Colon and Jose Reyes. There are, in fact, more Dominican players in the Minor and Major Leagues than from any other Caribbean or Latin American country--as well as any single state in the U.S.A.

Founded with just two teams in 1951, the well-organized Dominican Winter Baseball League now has six clubs, with two based in Santo Domingo .

Batter Up!

It's easy for vacationing baseball lovers to find a game. Tickets are inexpensive and can usually be purchased at the stadium on the day of the game. Dominican stadiums vary in size and style, but most are comparable to Minor League ballparks in the United States. Be prepared for lots of ruido (noise) from enthusiastic fans equipped with bells and horns.

Baseball is so beloved by Dominicans that the government has begun construction of the $115 million Juan Marichal Sports and Cultural Center. After it is completed in three years, the complex will include remodeled and expanded Quisqueya Stadium, a 150-room hotel, six apartment buildings, a shopping center, two office buildings and a museum.

Any of Puerto Rico's many ballparks is a great place to knock back a cold cerveza and some roasted peanuts as you take in an action-packed inning. The island that gave the Majors the legendary Roberto Clemente is home to the Puerto Rican Baseball League, which draws top U.S. and native players. The league is composed of teams from six cities: Santurce (San Juan), Caguas, Carolina, Ponce, Arecibo and Mayaguez.

El beisbol also has its die-hard followers in Mexico, where Vinny Castilla took his first swings and Fernando Valenzuela learned to pitch. The Mexican Pacific League hosts eight teams for regular season games from October to December, followed by the playoffs in January and then the Caribbean Series in February. And you've got to love colorful team names like Naranjeros de Hermosillo (Hermosillo Orange Pickers) and Venados de Mazatlan (Mazatlan Deers).

Or how about the wildly popular Leones de Caracas (Caracas Lions) in Venezuela? The Venezuelan Professional Baseball League is composed of eight teams that play more than 60 games each from October to December.

Come February the four winter league champion teams head to the long-venerated Caribbean Series. The first championship dates to 1949 in Cuba, which hosted the playoffs until the early 1960s, when the communist government banned professional sports on the island. That's ironic, when you consider that Cubans have been crazy about baseball since the game was introduced here--in the 1860s!

The Caribbean Series resumed in 1970. Now the competition moves to a different location each year. In 2010 it's on to Venezuela's Margarita Island; the year after, it moves to Mayagues, Puerto Rico, and in 2012 it's in the Dominican Republic.

Can't get enough baseball? Don't imagine your life as being over once the World Series ends? The world of winter baseball awaits you in the balmy islands--at the peak of Caribbean cruise season.  Play ball!