A Series of Muy Grande Events

It’s wet and wasteful as customs go, but all about winning.

The moment Mexico recorded the final out in Caribbean Series games this week, having defeated Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic on consecutive days, anything left in the beer cups held by thousands of fanaticos was tossed in the air, raining amber liquid on the elated overflow crowd.

The double round-robin competition began Tuesday and will end Monday, determining the champion of Latin America’s four winter baseball leagues, as it has every February since 1971.

Mazatlan, a port city on Mexico’s western coast in the baseball-crazed state of Sinaloa, is a frequent host because the series falls on the same week as Carnaval, prompting parades and partying that locals say rivals any celebration from Rio de Janeiro to New Orleans.

The hoopla surrounding the series has a salsa-saturated Final Four ambience. Passionate partisans move in flocks, proudly displaying team colors on caps, T-shirts and jackets. During games, fans wave large national flags -- when they aren’t banging noise sticks, chanting patriotic songs and dancing in their seats.

Loudspeakers thunder between each pitch with an eclectic assortment of merengue clips, rock ‘n’ roll riffs, vaguely identifiable movie scores, Mexican folk tunes and various sound effects.

Between the white lines, it’s just another baseball game for the most part, despite the national pride at stake. The spectacle is in the stands.

No wonder Elmer Dessens, a Dodger from spring to fall, was sneaking peeks from the dugout during breaks in the action Wednesday night. And he was Mexico’s starting pitcher.

For the record, Dessens also was the winning pitcher in a 7-5 victory over Puerto Rico, giving up two runs in five innings. Other players recognizable in the U.S. and revered south of the border -- Vinny Castilla and Erubiel Durazo among them -- had key hits for Mexico, sending the crowd into delirium.

And when Mexico outfielder Derrick White blasted a two-run homer off the huge Pacifico beer can affixed to a light standard beyond the left-field stands, a more effective subliminal message couldn’t have been dreamed up on Madison Avenue.

Another round of cervezas for the cheering multitude.

Bottles on ice sell for $1 and are packed into buckets stationed at the foot of every row at Teodoro Mariscal Stadium. Each day there are two very long games -- the first begins at 4 p.m. and the second doesn’t end until midnight or later. But no worries, the buckets are continually replenished. The Pacifico brewery would have to freeze over before sales were cut off.

An American expatriate who identified himself only as Jim explained the appeal: “In the U.S., you’re worried about driving home. Here, you just take a pulmonia.”

That would be one of the ubiquitous open-air taxis unique to Mazatlan, gasoline-fueled carts that transport patrons anywhere in the city for $5. Pulmonia means pneumonia, which is what locals say riding in the cart can give you on an overcast evening.

Alcohol did inhibit folks from reaching their appointed destination on at least one occasion, however. The team from the Dominican Republic arrived a day late when the pilot on an oversold charter flight refused to take off from Santo Domingo because passengers were drunk and belligerent.

The problem wasn’t the players, who included major league stars Miguel Tejada, Rafael Furcal, Ronnie Belliard and Miguel Batista. The flight had been delayed because the team was being honored by Dominican politicians, giving the rest of the passengers three hours to kill by fueling up on rum and beer.

The team missed its first game as well as the elaborate opening ceremonies. Series officials wanted the game made up Friday as part of a doubleheader, but the Dominicans refused. After a contentious two-hour meeting, an agreement was reached to extend the series by one day.

Problems have followed the heavily favored Dominicans, who have won six of the last eight series. Venezuela, a team with few established stars, shocked them, 7-5, Wednesday and Mexico beat them, 7-1, Thursday after being spotted three first-inning runs on errors by Belliard and Furcal.

To their credit, the Dominican players have not blamed their woes on the distinctive distractions of the series. The media conduct interviews on the field until moments before games begin. Fans pester players for autographs between innings, rushing to the backs of the dugouts and tossing balls, programs and pens to players, most of whom cheerfully oblige.

No one seemed surprised when Tejada stopped on his way to the dugout after scoring a run to pose for a 10-year-old boy holding a cellphone camera.

“This is as special for me as it is for my people,” Tejada said. “It’s a way of saying thank you. It’s still a thrill to represent my country, to wear a uniform that says Dominicano Soy on the front.”

Tejada, the American League most valuable player in 2002, is one of the few players in their prime participating. Most want a rest before spring training or are discouraged from playing by their primary employers -- the major league teams paying them millions.

The Angels are no doubt thrilled that relief pitcher Francisco Rodriguez, expected to take over the closer role, is not on the Venezuelan team, despite having played during the country’s winter league season. Dodger shortstop Cesar Izturis, Phillie outfielder Bobby Abreu and Marlin slugger Miguel Cabrera are other Venezuelan players who declined invitations.

Some top players are like characters from a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel, unable to bear the solitude of staying home even when they can’t suit up. Big league pitchers Esteban Loaiza and Oliver Perez, both Mexican nationals, visited the stadium in street clothes, signing autographs and soaking in the scene while telling reporters they wished they could play but can’t take the risk.

Under an agreement with the Caribbean Federation, major league teams can only prohibit native-born Latino players from participation in the winter leagues based on injury or fatigue as defined by statistics such as 180 innings pitched the previous season, 60 relief appearances and 520 at-bats.

The stakes are high because Latino players fill nearly one-quarter of major league 40-man rosters and more than 35% of minor league rosters.

The numbers matter little to the fans who have filled the stadium beyond capacity each day. They just know that the presence of a player such as Castilla, who has earned about $38 million playing in the majors, is something to be appreciated. Mexico is trying to win only its fifth series title in the last 35 years.

Patriotic anthems blare over the loudspeakers during his at-bats. Castilla, who has more major league home runs, 303, than any other player from Mexico, is a national hero. Yet the only hint of his celebrity is his inexplicably jovial 7-foot-2 bodyguard.

“How could I pass this up?” Castilla said after driving in five runs in the first three games. “It’s the dream so many of us had growing up, to represent our country.”

Rosters for the most part are loaded with young players who haven’t had a taste of the big time and older players who want one more sip of glory before calling it quits.

The youngster category includes Dominican pitcher Daniel Cabrera, a promising rookie with the Baltimore Orioles last season, and Daniel Cortes, a Mexican pitcher whose fastball was clocked at 97 mph this winter and earned him a contract with the Colorado Rockies.

And, yes, gloria is within reach. Mexican pitcher Francisco Campos has struggled for years to stick with a major league team, but in an eight-inning, 10-strikeout performance to defeat Venezuela this week he lived up to his local moniker, Poncho Ponches. The first word is a nickname for Francisco, the second a reference to strikeouts, or punch-outs.

At the older end of the spectrum are Mexican center fielder Trenidad Hubbard, 38, who has played in all four winter leagues and for nine major league teams; Puerto Rican first baseman Orlando Merced, 38, whose 13-year big league career ended in 2003; Venezuelan outfielder Alex Cabrera, 33, who slugged 105 home runs in two seasons in Japan but never could catch up to big league fastballs; and ageless Dominican outfielder Luis Polonia, who at 41 remains spry enough to bat second in the lineup after Furcal and ahead of Tejada.

Polonia, who batted .293 in 14 major league seasons, has appeared in 11 Caribbean Series, more than any player, and also holds records for games, at-bats, hits, doubles and runs. Although he hasn’t played in the majors since 2000, his performance this winter earned him a spring training invitation by the Washington Nationals.

“The Caribbean Series is the most fun I have in baseball,” he said. “We play in it to give back. This is where we learned the game. The winter leagues made it possible for many of us to play major league baseball.”

Latino winter leagues began in the 1920s when many Negro League players filled out rosters. After the major leagues became integrated, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Cuba and Panama formed the Caribbean Federation in 1948 and the following year began an annual tournament with rotating hosts. The first series was held in Havana and the stars were legendary Cuban pitcher Agapito Mayor and major league slugger Monte Irvin.

Cuba withdrew from the federation in 1960, after the revolution in the island country, and the Caribbean Series folded until 1970, when Mexico and the Dominican Republic replaced Cuba and Panama.

Mazatlan has played host five times. Statues of ballplayers based on the paintings of local artist Antonio Lopez Saenz stand throughout the city, where historians say baseball has been played since U.S. servicemen introduced the game in 1847.

The Serie del Caribe has a rich tradition. Rod Carew and Willie Mays were inducted into its Hall of Fame this year. Old-timers still talk about the 1977 series when Dominican Rico Carty hit five home runs, and the 1971 series when Manny Mota batted .579 and led the Dominican team to the title as player-manager. Raul Mondesi, Roberto Alomar and David Ortiz were series batting leaders in recent years.

Gringos are allowed too, as long as they participated in the winter league regular season. Series MVPs have included Don Zimmer in 1955 and Bobby Valentine in 1973. Champion Dominican teams were managed by Tom Lasorda in 1973 and Terry Collins in 1985.

This year, left-handed journeyman Bill Pulsipher, who grew up in Georgia, was the starter for Puerto Rico the first day. Fringe major leaguer Matt Cepicky, a product of Southwest Missouri State, is batting cleanup for the Dominican Republic.

Once the games begin, they are representing foreign nations. Player names aren’t even on the uniforms.

The only word on the back of Mexico’s jerseys is Pacifico, the omnipresent brewing company. Between innings, someone wearing an inflatable Pacifico bottle waddles onto the field and teenage girls in spandex toss T-shirts bearing the company logo into the stands.

Everybody seems to be drinking except the players, coaches and the umpires, although veteran Latino reporters say the number of sportswriters pouring tequila or rum from flasks into their complimentary sodas has leveled off in recent years.

Restraint is shown only in the ninth inning when Mexico appears headed for another victory. Nobody wants to be caught without something in the cup at game´s end, when it’s time for another foamy shower.

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Caribbean Series

The results and schedule for the Caribbean Series, running through Monday in Mazatlan and pitting the championship teams from winter leagues in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Venezuela in a double round-robin format (all times PST):

Tuesday: Mexico 4, Venezuela 0

Wednesday: Venezuela 7, Dominican Republic 5

Mexico 7, Puerto Rico 5

Thursday: Venezuela 6, Puerto Rico 5

Mexico 7, Dominican Republic 1

Friday: Dominican Republic 8, Puerto Rico 3

Mexico vs. Venezuela

Today: Venezuela vs. Dominican Republic, 3 p.m.

Puerto Rico vs. Mexico, 7 p.m.

Sunday: Puerto Rico vs. Venezuela, noon

Dominican Republic vs. Mexico, 4 p.m.

Monday: Dominican Republic vs. Puerto Rico, 10 a.m.

Note: Teams representing their countries are Aguilas Cibaenas (Dominican Republic), Mazatlan Venados (Mexico), Mayaguez Indios (Puerto Rico) and Aragua Tigres (Venezuela)