| Sport: | Baseball |
| Founded: | 1951 |
| President: | Vitelio Mejía Ortiz |
| Confed: | CPBC |
| Teams: | 6 |
| Champion: | Tigres del Licey |
| Champ Season: | 2023-24 |
| Most Successful Club: | Tigres del Licey (24 titles) |
| Related Comps: | Caribbean Series |
| Tv: | Dominican Republic Águilas (CDN Deportes) Estrellas, Toros (Coral 39) Licey, Escogido (Digital 15) Gigantes (Channel 4RD) Outside the D.R. MLB.TV[1] |
| Website: | lidom.com |
| Current Season: | 2024–25 LIDOM season |
The Dominican Republic Professional Baseball League (es|Liga de Béisbol Profesional de la República Dominicana|links=no or LIDOM) is a professional baseball winter league consisting of six teams spread across the Dominican Republic; it is the highest level of professional baseball played in the Dominican Republic. The league's players include many prospects that go on to play Major League Baseball in the United States while also signing many current MLB veterans. The champion of LIDOM advances to play in the yearly Caribbean Series.
Each team plays a fifty-game round-robin schedule that begins in mid October and runs to the end of December. The top four teams engage in another round-robin schedule with 18 games per team from the end of December to the end of January; the top two teams in those standings then play a best-of-nine series for the national title. The league's champion advances to the Caribbean Series to play against the representatives from Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama and Puerto Rico.[2]
See also: Baseball in the Dominican Republic. For his close involvement in the Dominican league's establishment and early development, Pedro Miguel Caratini has been called "the father of Dominican baseball".[3] Four amateur clubs established in the early 1900s still exist today, and form the foundation of Dominican professional baseball: Tigres del Licey in 1907, Estrellas Orientales in 1911, Leones del Escogido in 1921, and Sandino (later renamed Águilas Cibaeñas) in 1937.
The first attempts at an organized professional league came about in the 1920s. Licey, the most successful of the existing amateur teams in Santo Domingo, played a series of 32 games against an all-star team known as "Escogido" ("the chosen ones"); that tournament was won by Escogido, though Caratini (Licey) took the batting title.[4] [5] A second tournament held the following year, now with four teams (Escogido, Licey, Santiago and San Pedro de Macorís) was suspended with only 34 games of the 48-game schedule played, after Escogido withdrew in protest of a controversial decision to nullify a victory over Licey.[6] Licey won the 1924 series, contested against Escogido, as they did in 1929. However, professional baseball saw a hiatus after the 1930 San Zenón hurricane destroyed both La Primavera and the Gimnasio Escolar, the two existing venues for baseball in Santo Domingo.
During the years 1930-1963, military dictator General Rafael Trujillo can be credited with furthering the sport of baseball in Dominican Republic. Trujillo encouraged many sugar refineries to create teams of cane cutting laborers to play baseball during the idle months of cultivation. Fostering high levels of competition, the organization structure continued to mature stimulating growth in the intensity and popularity of the game.[7] Another professional tournament was established in 1936, this time with four teams: Licey, Escogido, Santiago, and Estrellas Orientales, which won the 1936 tournament.
In 1937, Licey and Escogido, the two teams in Santo Domingo (now renamed "Ciudad Trujillo"), were merged into the "Dragones de Ciudad Trujillo," a team sponsored by the dictator Trujillo himself. teams of the Dominican Republic signed a large number of players from the Negro leagues of the United States, attracting them with large salaries by Dominicans with money and political power. Among these players were future Hall of Famers James Thomas "Cool Papa" Bell, Josh Gibson, and Satchel Paige.[7] Gibson won the batting title (.453) and Paige earned the most wins, as Dragones defeated Aguilas Cibaeñas.[8] However, the lavish contracts exhausted team finances, leading to a decline of Dominican baseball until 1950.[7]
Many of the teams were nearly bankrupted after the 1937 season, and no professional tournament was attempted for the next 14 years. The best Dominican professionals left to play in Cuba, Puerto Rico, or in the American Negro leagues, while popular attention on the island turned to the amateur teams (which, in many cases, were effectively semi-pro teams). However, Dominican victories in the Amateur World Series and other international competitions spurred calls for a return to professional baseball.[9]
| Team | City | Stadium | Capacity | Founded | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Águilas Cibaeñas | Santiago | Estadio Cibao | 18,077 | 1933 | |
| Estrellas Orientales | San Pedro de Macorís | Estadio Tetelo Vargas | 8,000 | 1910 | |
| Gigantes del Cibao | San Francisco de Macorís | Estadio Julián Javier | 12,000 | 1996 | |
| Leones del Escogido | Santo Domingo | Estadio Quisqueya | 14,469 | 1921 | |
| Tigres del Licey | Santo Domingo | Estadio Quisqueya | 14,469 | 1907 | |
| Toros del Este | La Romana | Estadio Francisco Micheli | 10,000 | 1983 |
| Season | Champion | Manager | Record | Runner-up | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1922 | Leones del Escogido | Luis Alfau | 23–9 | Tigres del Licey | |
| 1923 | Season not completed | ||||
| 1924 | Tigres del Licey | Charles Alexander Dore | 17–15 | Leones del Escogido | |
| 1929 | Tigres del Licey | Charles Alexander Dore | 11–7 | Leones del Escogido | |
| 1936 | Estrellas Orientales | Enrique Mejía | 13–5 | Aguilas Cibaeñas | |
| 1937 | Dragones de Ciudad Trujillo | Lázaro Salazar | 18–13 | Aguilas Cibaeñas |
| Won Caribbean Series |
| Team | Championships | |
|---|---|---|
| Tigres del Licey | 24 (2)* | |
| Águilas Cibaeñas | 22 | |
| Leones del Escogido | 16 (1)* | |
| Estrellas Orientales | 3 (1)* | |
| Toros del Este | 3 | |
| Gigantes del Cibao | 2 | |
| Dragones de Ciudad Trujillo | 0 (1)* | |
| Caimanes del Sur | 0 |