Tiburones de La Guaira


The Tiburones de La Guaira are a baseball team in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League. Though they nominally represent La Guaira, they also play home games at the Estadio Universitario in nearby Caracas. Tiburones have won eight national championships since their founding in 1962, most recently in 2024.
WWW tiburones.net

History

In 1962 the Licoreros de Pampero team, which was founded in 1955, was sold for the symbolic price of one Bolívar by his owner Alejandro Hernández to José Antonio Casanova, who was considered the greatest Venezuelan manager at the time. The new team changed its name to Tiburones de la Guaira.
Casanova, who was also the first manager of the team, did not have enough financial resources to go through an entire season. He then talked to his friend, Dr. Jesús Morales Valarino, who suggested an alliance with an important group of personalities and traders such as Manuel Malpica, Jose Antonio Diaz, Mario Gomez y Pablo Diaz. In that moment Tiburones de la Guaira was born, taking the field for first time ever in the 1962–1963 season. It was Morales' idea to take the team to the city of La Guaira, in order to take advantage of a city with no team yet numerous baseball fans.
In their first season, the Tiburones finished with a 23–19 record, missing the finals disputed between the Leones del Caracas and Industriales de Valencia. The team struggled in 1963–1964, ending third with a 23–27 record, being locked out of contention. La Guaira club would have to wait until its third season to win the first league championship, in a five-game confrontation against the Leones.
La Guaira was managed by Casanova until that year, and had remarkable players such as MLB Hall of Famers Luis Aparicio and Rollie Fingers, and Ángel Bravo, José Herrera and Elio Chacón as top Venezuelan figures. Casanova's contract expired in 1965 and the board of directors decided to finish the work relationship buying all his stock. Then Pedro Padrón Panza, who was among the original founders, bought all the stock to become the single owner.
At the time, Padrón worked hard to settle an important base of players which was later known as "La Guerrilla", because –no matter the score of a game– they were a never-surrender bunch of players who gave all to the cause. Some notable names includes the likes of Ozzie Guillén, Carlos Martinez, Gustavo Polidor, Luis Salazar and Luis Mercedes Sánchez, among others.
Padrón suffered a long illness starting in the early 1990s, which affected the level of his beloved team as well. He died in 1999, aged 78, leaving the control of the franchise to his son, Pedro Padrón Briñez, also known as "Peruchito". Nevertheless, Padrón Jr. and his son died in the 1999 Vargas tragedy that killed tens of thousands of people.
Marked by the death of three generations –past, present and future– of the team, the Tiburones tried to repeat their glorious performances of the 1970s and 1980s in the 2000–2001 season under manager and former player Luis Salazar, almost clinching a playoff spot. Since then, the Tiburones has become a competitive force again in the Venezuela league, missing the final series by taking a loss in an extra game in the 2008–2009 season against the Tigres de Aragua, and reaching the final series in 2011–2012, which they end up losing again to Aragua in six games.
Tiburones won the title in 2023—24 over Cardenales de Lara. At the 2024 Caribbean Series, Tiburones pitcher Ángel Padrón threw a nine-inning no-hitter against Nicaragua's Gigantes de Rivas, the first no-hitter in the tournament since 1952.

Championship titles/managers

Team highlights

LVBP regular season leaders

Hitting

Batting average
SeasonPlayerTotal
1966–1967Tony Curry.309
1973–1974 Al Bumbry .367
1974–1975 Al Bumbry .354
1988–1989Carlos Martínez .331
1991–1992 Chad Curtis .338
2011–2012 César Suárez .349
2013–2014 Alex Cabrera .391

Home runs
SeasonPlayerTotal
1977–1978Clint Hurdle18
1982–1983Darryl Strawberry 12
1995–1996 Carlos Martínez 7
2002–2003 Rob Stratton 10
2008–2009 Max Ramírez 15
2013–2014 Alex Cabrera 21

Runs batted in
SeasonPlayerTotal
1962–1963Dave Roberts34
1965–1966 John Bateman 38
1981–1982 Gary Rajsich 48
1991–1992 Chad Curtis 37
1995–1996 Carlos Martínez 39
2000–2001 Chris Jones 48
2013–2014 Alex Cabrera 59

Pitching

Wins
SeasonPlayerTotal
1964–1965Darold Knowles *13
1965–1966 Marcelino López 12
1966–1967 Gene Brabender ** 13
1967–1968 Eddie Watt *** 12
1972–1973 Jim Rooker 13
1974–1975 Tom House 10
1979–1980 Odell Jones 11
2002–2003 Bill Pulsipher 6

* Tied with Lew Krausse Jr.

** Tied with Jim McGlothlin

*** Tied with Diego Seguí
Earned run average
SeasonPlayerTotal
1962–1963Dale Willis 2.03
1964–1965Darold Knowles 2.37
1965–1966Marcelino López 1.57
1969–1970Mike Hedlund 0.75
1976–1977Steve Luebber 2.59

Strikeouts
SeasonPlayerTotal
1962–1963George Brunet89
1964–1965 Darold Knowles155
1966–1967 Gene Brabender147
1974–1975 Doug Bird 82
1979–1980 Odell Jones103
1985–1986 Odell Jones 70
1998–1999 Lou Pote 67

Major League alumni

All-time foreign players

Retired numbers