Citi Field will host a three-game exhibition series between the Tigres del Licey and the Aguilas Cibaenas from November 9-11. (Photo by Matt Thomas/San Diego Padres/Getty Images)
By Matthew Tallarini
World Baseball Network
NEW YORK – Promoters for the Titanes del Caribe, a three-game exhibition series between the Tigres del Licey and the Aguilas Cibaenas that will be played at Citi Field from November 10-12, announced musical performers and broadcast information at a press conference Thursday.
Celebrities that will be at the event at Citi Field include DJ Alex Sensation, Reggaeton y Dembow artist Jey One, Latin trap artists Flow 28, Radio and Club DJ Adoni, as well as others from the Dominican Republic’s Santiago and Santo Domingo regions, Latin America, and the United States.
Canal Telemicro in the Dominican Republic will have the broadcasting rights for the Titanes del Caribe three-game series. A U.S. broadcast outlet has not yet been announced.
The Titanes del Caribe event with Águilas Cibaeñas and the Tigres del Licey of the Liga de Béisbol Profesional de la República Dominicana will feature a three-game exhibition series at Citi Field from November 10-12 after the 2023 Major League Baseball season during the 2023-24 winter league regular season.
The second press conference was held on Thursday at Citi Field with the promoters of Felix Carbrera Presents and Zamora Live operated by Pedro Zamora that were in attendance.
Felix Cabrera Presents and Zamora Live will be the promoters for the Titanes del Caribe Event, along with New York-based Latin radio station La Mega 97.9 FM, and La Musica Presentan, a music label and promoting event company based out of New York.
Felix Cabrera Presents and Zamora Live have promoted in major club venues alongside various concerts in stadiums, and arenas from all over the world in the past with major Spanish music genres from hosting with New York Spanish music radio station Mega 97.9 FM concert events that have taken place at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ and Madison Square Garden in the past. La Musica Presentan is a music website platform that has merchandise, podcasts, live spanish music radio stations from the United States and Latin America, albums, EP’s, mixtapes, news articles and music videos.
“For me it’s important to have an event like this,” Cabrera told World Baseball Network in Spanish. “It was important to bring it here to have a starting point for this event, because going forward, year after year, I want to be able to bring all the different teams of the Caribbean to all these different teams of the country, whether its Miami or Puerto Rico, and I want to be able to have those big events because I think it’s able to grow the game.”
Felix Cabrera Presents and Zamora Live hope to promote more games between Caribbean teams, with games featuring teams from Venezuela, Puerto Rico, and Mexico in New York and elsewhere.
“It’s an honor that Felix invited me to be part of the Titanes del Caribe, especially since my business is very close to this ballpark and I am a huge fan of baseball along with being the first group to bring the top two teams of the Caribbean to New York,” Zamora told World Baseball Network after the press conference. “It’s a huge honor. I can assure you and guarantee you that this is going to be a Dominican Fiesta all the way from the start to the finish line.”
“We hope to bring this to other cities and other countries, obviously, because I believe in this sport and I believe in the Latin teams, especially the two prestigious teams that are always head-to-head in a dog fight like the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees going at it that are playing in this historic event,” Zamora said.
From the South Bronx to Washington Heights and elsewhere in New York City, the Dominican community will have a lot to cheer for when teams from the biggest cities in the country, Santiago, home of the Aguilas Cibaenas, and the nation’s capital, Santo Domingo, home of the Tigres del Licey, take the field in November and bring international baseball to New York.
“[There] is a growing appetite for the United States consumer in terms of what winter ball represents, and the type of baseball that we play,” Miguel Guerra, Vice President of Tigres del Licey stated on September 14. “There is growing interest for the Caribbean Series and for our type of baseball to be able to feel that energy and the passion that these players play and it’s very important also on why we want to do this type of events.”
The league’s schedule was revised on Thursday so all the remaining games will be made up during the final part of the 2023-24 season.
The last day of the LIDOM regular season will take place on December 22, prior to the start of the playoff Round Robin.
The three-game series in November at Citi Field will be the first time that two Caribbean professional teams from the Dominican Republic have ever played a set of exhibition games during the regular season in New York, as well as the first time playing at a neutral venue during the regular season. The only time during the winter league season where two teams play in a neutral venue is during the Caribbean Series.
There will be discussions in the near future to have a future series in New York or possibly other MLB stadiums down the line, and to have such a series be part of the regular season.
Officials from LIDOM could include the other teams in the league in future series’ as well if the “Titanes del Caribe” series goes well, potentially giving the Estrellas Orientales, Gigantes del Cibao, Leones del Escogido, and Toros del Este a chance to be involved in the next series of games in the United States.
The only time Latin American club teams have played in an exhibition series in the United States during the winter league season was in the November 2015 Serie de las Americas in Miami at loanDepot Park, with four clubs from both the Dominican Republic and Venezuela appearing in that event.
The Tigres del Licey and the Aguilas Cibaeñas participated in the event along with the Navegantes del Magallanes and the Cardenales de Lara from the Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional. Aguilas Cibaeñas won the Serie de las Américas, beating Cardenales de Lara in the bottom of the ninth inning 4-3 on Zoilo Almonte’s two-out, two-run single.
The Tigres del Licey played in the championship final of the 2023 Caribbean Series against the Leones del Caracas of the Liga Venezolana de Béisbol Profesional at Estadio La Rinconada in Caracas, Venezuela, winning 3-0 to capture their 11th Caribbean Series title, the most by any organization in Latin America. They had not won a Caribbean Series championship title since 2008.
Aguilas Cibaenas has the second-most Caribbean Series championships with six. The Aguilas’ last championship was at the 2021 Caribbean Series against Puerto Rico’s Criollos de Caguas in Mazatlan, Mexico, at Estadio Teodoro Mariscal, where they won 4-1 in the championship game under former manager Felix Fermin.
The 2023-24 LIDOM regular season will start on October 19, with three games slated for opening day. The Santo Domingo series between the Leones del Escogido and the Tigres del Licey will be at Estadio Quisqueya Juan Marichal at 7:15 p.m. EDT. The Gigantes del Cibao will travel to Santiago to play the Aguilas Cibaenas at 7:30 p.m. EDT at Estadio Cibao. The Toros del Este will play the Estrellas Orientales a 7:30 p.m. EDT at Estadio Tetelo Vargas.
All LIDOM regular season games will be streamed on MLB.tv until the final out of the best-of-seven championship series in January, shortly before the 2024 Caribbean Series in Miami at loanDepot Park from February 1-9.
All proceeds from ticket sales for all three games will benefit the Sports Dreams Foundation, which is a non-profit organization that focuses on benefiting youth baseball and similar activities in the Dominican Republic and the United States.
2023 Tigres del Licey vs. Aguilas Cibaenas Exhibition Series Schedule
All Games at Citi Field, Flushing, New York
Game 1 – Friday, November 10 – 6 p.m. EST
Game 2 – Saturday, November 11 – 1 p.m. EST
Game 3 – Sunday, November 12 – 1 p.m. EST