Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Sports
Though the silent, stone-lined Taíno ball courts of Tibes and Caguana pay homage to Puerto
Rico's long dedication to sports, they speak nothing of the ferocious energy that fires the
competitive spirit of islanders today. For such a geographically small place, Puerto Rico
plays a disproportionately large role in modern sport, whether it be through an upset of the
fabled American 'Dream Team' at the 2004 Olympics or producing legendary champions on
the pitch or in the ring.
During the summer of 2010 Mayagüez was host to the 21st annual Central American and Caribbean Games. It was the third time
the island had hosted the regional games and a number of stadiums were built and refurbished for the event, including the
13,000-capacity, $43-million Mayagüez Athletics Stadium.
Baseball
Puerto Rico's official pastime is
béisbol
(baseball), a modern game that bears a vague re-
semblance to the ceremonial
batú
of Taíno ancestors and draws telling parallels with the
island's contemporary economic and cultural relationship with the US. As much as Puerto
Rico's beleaguered economy is reliant on support from the US federal government, the
Puerto Rican Baseball League is bankrolled by the Major League Baseball (MLB). Players
with island roots often make their most significant contributions to the Puerto Rican dia-
spora while working in New York and Chicago. The pros that rise from the island's embar-
rassingly empty stadiums are often celebrated as icons when they make it to the big show.
Roberto Clemente is probably the most famous Puerto Rican baseball star of all time, with a career batting average of .317. He
was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973 after his death in a plane crash.
While the official pastime gets plenty of lip service and Puerto Ricans follow the US Ma-
jor Leagues with some attention, going to a game here can be an eerily quiet event. The
2007-08 season was canceled due to financial difficulties, and when you find yourself as
one of a hundred fans among thousands of empty seats, it's easy to see why. Still, every ma-
jor city has a team in the Puerto Rican league and when the season enters its ascent to the
finals, the scene gets a little livelier.
US Major League teams also hold spring training camps in Puerto Rico and regularly use
the island's league as a farm team. Early-season exhibition games are held in spring, includ-
ing the televised San Juan Series, at San Juan's Hiram Bithorn Stadium.
