Licoreros de Pampero


The Licoreros de Pampero was a baseball club who played from 1955 through 1962 in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League. The team joined the league as a replacement for the Patriotas de Venezuela and played its home games at the Estadio Universitario in Caracas.

History

The Pampero team was sponsored by the rum company of that name, and was managed by former Washington Senators catcher Fermin Guerra in its inaugural season. The team finished second behind the champions Industriales de Valencia, relegating the strong Leones del Caracas and Navegantes del Magallanes to the following places in the four-team league. The pitching staff was headed by Clarence Churn, who posted a 10–4 record and a 3.04 earned run average, while tying for the most wins with Magallanes' Ramón Monzant and Caracas' Cal McLish. Besides Churn, Roger Bowman went 9–6 with a 3.55 ERA and 70 strikeouts. Meanwhile, the offense was clearly led by Pedro Formental, Mike Goliat and Loren Babe.
But the team suffered three losing campaigns in a row, before rebounding somewhat in 1959–60 with a 15–13 record in a season shortened by a players' strike. Their most productive season came in 1960–61, when they finished 28–24 for a 3rd place, but did not qualify for the playoffs.
The Licoreros finished last in 1961–62 and ceased operations at the end of the season. After that, Pampero was sold for the symbolic price of one Venezuelan bolívar by its major shareholder Alejandro Hernández to José Antonio Casanova, by this time the team's skipper. Casanova, who did not have enough financial resources to go through an entire season, made an alliance with a significant group of personalities and traders to acquire the franchise. Then it was renamed the Tiburones de La Guaira and debuted in the 1962–63 season.

Yearly Team Records

Notable players