Tigres del Licey

The Licey team was founded as the result of a meeting that took place in the house of Vicente María and Jacinto "Pichán" Vallejo, on el Conde Street, in Santo Domingo's Colonial Zone, on 7 November 1907. The club's founding members were Vicente María Vallejo, George "Geo" and Carlos "Cuncún" Pou, Luis and Federico E. Fiallo, Luis Castillo, Salvador Piñeyro, Álvaro Álvarez, Ricardo Arturo "Tutú" Martínez, Ángel and Chichí Mieses, Arturo "Tutulí" Perdomo, Manuel E. "Bi" Sánchez, Virgilio Abreu L., Alberto Peña, Arturo Nolasco and Tulio H. Piña and Virgilio "Niñito" Penson. Many of the founding members of the original team were also part of the first roster.[1]

Over the next 16 years, Licey became so dominant that an agreement was made among the three other competing teams (Los Muchachos, San Carlos and Delco Lite) to form a new team, composed of their best players, in order to beat Licey. This team, called "Leones del Escogido" ( Lions of the Chosen one ), still exists, and the teams share the same stadium in Santo Domingo.

During what Dominicans call the "first stage" of the country's baseball history, games were played only during daylight hours. The game's "second stage" didn’t begin until dictator Rafael Trujillo built the capital's Estadio Quisqueya in 1955, a brilliantly designed and built stadium for the time. With the stadium came lights and what is considered the golden age of Dominican baseball.

Licey has won the Caribbean Series a record 11 times. In an unusual situation during the 2008 season, Licey finished second in the Dominican championship and would have failed to qualify for the series, but took the place of a Puerto Rican team that had withdrawn from the tournament due to financial difficulties. Licey won the series, defeating teams from Mexico and Venezuela as well as Aguilas Cibaeñas, their Dominican rivals.

• Official website