Catch Cardinals in the Caribbean Series

Starving for some live baseball action?

The Caribbean Series gets underway today, Wednesday, February 2. The annual tournament pits the winners of the winter leagues from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and Mexico in a round-robin competition. Schedules include double-headers in each of the next six days from Mayaguez, Puerto Rico at 3:00 P.M. and 7:30 P.M Eastern.

The only two current St. Louis Cardinals players participating are left-handed pitcher Raul Valdes and infielder Ramon Vazquez, both of whom were signed over the winter to minor league contracts with spring training invitations.

Valdes, a native Cuban, is listed as the starter for the Dominican Republic in game one at 3:00 today, Wednesday, while Vazquez is on Puerto Rico’s preliminary roster and may be in the lineup for the 7:30 P.M. contest.

All games will be telecast by ESPN Deportes. Do not despair if the worldwide leader’s Spanish channel is not carried on your local cable system.

ESPN offers a feature called ESPN3, formerly called ESPN360. If your cable supplier is a participant in the program, and many are, you can sign up at no additional charge to see via your computer alternate ESPN programming not normally carried in your area. The Caribbean Series games are among the listed options, though telecast en Espanol. You can also view archived telecasts.

About ¼ of the way down this page is a link to the list of participating cable systems as well as instructions for signing up.

ESPN also has a very good website with series rosters, schedules and background information. While it is in Spanish, if you use Google toolbar, you can translate it into English with a single keystroke.

In addition, as always, for The Cardinal Nation subscribers, we will be breaking down the daily performances of Valdes, Vazquez as well as a number of ex-Cardinals competing in the Series.

Update: Gulf Coast League Cardinals catcher Kevin Moscatel was a late addition to the Venezuelan roster as their third catcher for the Series. It is a nice honor for the 19-year-old, who played briefly for Caribes earlier in the winter ball season.

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