LoanDepot Park in Miami, Florida, will host the 2024 Caribbean Series. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
By Matthew Tallarini
World Baseball Network
Caribbean Series Night at loanDepot Park is just 24 hours away, but excitement is already building in Miami.
Tomorrow, the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation will make the formal announcement of the inclusion of Nicaragua and Curacao as invitees for the 2024 Caribbean Series, which will be played in January and February of 2024 at loanDepot Park. The 2024 Caribbean Series will have six countries represented, two fewer than the 2023 event in Caracas, Venezuela, where eight countries played in two venues.
Planning for the Caribbean Series in Miami began several years ago, Chema Sanchez, the manager of business development for the Marlins and Organizing Committee for the 2024 Caribbean Series, told World Baseball Network on Friday.
“This is great. This is something we have been working for in a very long time. This is our goal and has been our goal to get closer to our Hispanic community,” Sanchez said. “Doing events like this one, we can bring such an important event to the Hispanic community with the Caribbean Series. It’s a dream come true for me, and certainly a goal that we have accomplished as a an organization.”
Sanchez began the process of talking to the Caribbean Baseball Professional Confederation during the 2022 Caribbean Series in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, when Marlins executives visited the Dominican Republic for the 2022 tournament and proposed that Miami would be the host for 2024.
The Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Mexico, which are permanent members of the Caribbean Baseball Professional Confederation, will four of the teams represented at the tournament, along with Nicaragua and Curacao, the two invitees attending the 2024 Caribbean Series during late January and early February.
The 66th Caribbean Series will likely bring a great buzz to the city of Miami, similar to what the 2023 World Baseball Classic did this past March.
Curacao’s Andruw Jones and Dominican Hall of Fame outfielder Vladimir Guerrero Sr. will be the honored guests tomorrow for Caribbean Series Night at loanDepot Park prior to first pitch.
“It means a lot for these players, and for young players, it means a lot to go play with their national team from the winter leagues,” Guerrero said of the Caribbean Series. “With the exposure that they get over there, and the attention that they are able to get, and the type of game and atmosphere of how fun it is, its very important, and now they are able to bring the event to the United States. I hope [a lot of players]… play in the winter leagues this season so that they come to Miami for the 2024 Caribbean Series.”
Guerrero Sr. was honored at the 2022 Caribbean Series in Santo Domingo at Estadio Quisqueya Juan Marichal for the opening night festivities of the tournament and hopes for so much of the young talent in the Dominican Republic that can see the vision of playing in this historic tournament.
The Marlins will have their promotional night for the Caribbean Series in the second game of their series against the Cubs on Saturday night, with a press conference from the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation on the scheduling of the tournament prior to first pitch at 4:05 p.m. EDT. World Baseball Network will have coverage of the press conference when the Marlins and the CBPC provide more details the tournament on Caribbean Series Promotion Night.