The stadium for the first game is gorgeous. It is not the new park (they'll use that later) but this one (Estadio Forum La Guaira) is amazing. It's right on the Caribbean, I mean right on the ####### Caribbean. Forget about McCovey Cove in right field this has the sea view all around the outfield and a ferris wheel behind foul territory down the left field side.

HOM LF Rankings - since I can't post there maybe someone can move it for me? Thanks, Mike

### Name
1 Barry Bonds
2 Ted Williams
3 Stan Musial
4 Rickey Henderson
5 Carl Yastrzemski
6 Tim Raines
7 Manny Ramirez
8 Fred Clarke
9 Willie Stargell
10 Billy Williams
11 Zack Wheat
12 Al Simmons
13 Jesse Burkett
14 Ed Delahanty
15 Goose Goslin
16 Sherry Magee
17 Jimmy Sheckard
18 Monte Irvin
19 Minnie Minoso
20 Lance Berkman
21 Joe Medwick
22 Joe Kelley
23 Ralph Kiner
24 Charlie Keller
25 Harry Stovey
26 Charley Jones

Just going to note that game one started at 9:30. It is just before 11:30 and we are headed to the bottom of the 8th.

Day one in the books. Cuba win in extras, Mexico with a comeback fueled by some shoddy defense while Colombia and Venezuela get fairly routine wins. They are using the Manfred Man runner for extra innings as we learned in the Cuba-Curacao game.

Colombia 1-0 +6
Venezuela 1-0 +3
Cuba 1-0 +2
Mexico 1-0 +1
Dominican 0-1 -1
Curacao 0-1 -2
Panama 0-1 -3
Puerto Rico 0-1 -6

Today
12 - Panama-Colombia
1:30 - DR-Cuba
5 - Curacao-Mexico
6:30 - PR-Venezuela

Little late on my update from yesterday so I'll include the results of today's first game. Curacao have now allowed just four runs in 28 innings. Through the first nine games of the tournament things look very balanced. Every team already has a win and for the most part the games have been close;4 one run games, 2 two run games (one of which was an extra inning affair) and a three run game. Just two games decided by more than three runs.

Curacao 2-1 0
Colombia 1-1 +5
Cuba 1-1 0
Dominican Republic 1-1 +1
Mexico 1-1 0
Puerto Rico 1-1 -1
Venezuela 1-1 -2
Panama 1-2 -3

Today:
Curacao 1-0 Panama
PR - DR just underway
Colombia-Mexico 2PM
Cuba-Venezuela 6:30PM

Game of the tournament so far was Mexico's dramatic comeback from a 6-2 deficit to walk off 7-6 with one in the 7th, three in the 8th and one in the 9th. We had our first laugher as Venezuela scored 7 times in the first to beat Cuba 20-3.

Venezuela 2-1 +15
Dominican Republic 2-1 +3
Mexico 2-1 +1
Curacao 2-1 +1
Colombia 1-2 +4
Puerto Rico 1-2 -3
Panama 1-2 -4
Cuba 1-2 -17

It's Sunday in Latin America so we are going to wait until noon to start games to let everyone go to mass.

Colombia-Curacao Noon
Mexico-Cuba 1:30
Puerto Rico-Panama 5:00
DR-Venezuela 6:30

Great day of baseball yesterday with four one run games. Colombia scored twice in the ninth to tie it then finally won it in the 13th over Curacao. Venezuela beat the DR in 12 while Panama edged the PR and Mexico took a 6-5 lead over Cuba in the third inning then neither side scored again.

Venezuela 3-1 +16
Mexico 3-1 +2
Colombia 2-2 +5
DR 2-2 +2
Curacao 2-2 0
Panama 2-2 -3
Puerto Rico 1-3 -4
Cuba 1-3 -18

Today:
Cuba-Colombia bottom first
DR-Panama 1PM
Curacao-PR 2PM
Mexico-Venezuela 6:30PM

Venezuela got 3 in the 7th and 3 in the 8th to leap past Curacao 8-6. Colombia pounded the DR while Mexico and Puerto Rico edged Panama and Cuba respectively. Final day today! Other than Cuba I believe everyone still has a chance to advance.

Mexico 5-1 +10 (advanced)
Venezuela 4-2 +11
Colombia 4-2 +16
Dominican Republic 3-3 +1
Puerto Rico 3-3 -1
Panama 2-4 -12
Curacao 2-4 -12
Cuba 1-5 -20 (eliminated)

Panama-Cuba 9:30
Curacao-DR 1:00 (DR advances with win)
Puerto Rico-Mexico 2:00 (Puerto Rico advances with win and DR loss)
Venezuela-Colombia 6:30 (winner advances)

The stuff I've listed is the easy stuff. There are a lot of scenarios for 3 and 4 way ties and I ain't trying to figure that out.

Panama whooped Cuba so they've done their part. They still need the DR and PR to lose their games to have a chance. If either team win Panama (and Curacao) are elimtinated.

OK let's figure this out. We are looking like we are heading for a 3 way tie for the last two spots with the DR and PR leading their games comfortably. So that would put those two teams with the loser of tonight's Venezuela-Colombia game in a three way tie for third place. Head to head is the first tie breaker. Mexico beat both Venezuela and Colombia so they are assured of the top spot. Assuming they break the three way tie then break the two way tie the results would be as follows.

and Colombia wins-
PR beat VEN, PR beat DR, VEN beat DR
Mexico
Colombia
Puerto Rico
Venezuela

and Venezuela wins - Colombia and Puerto Rico advance
COL beat PR, PR beat DR, COL beat DR
Mexico
Venezuela
Colombia
Puerto Rico

So if I'm right (not a given) the Puerto Rico advance with a win over Mexico. Mexico have rallied a bit and trail 5-3 in the fifth so a long way to go.

Well this is embarrassing, the DR beat Puerto Rico not the other way around. So if Colombia wins tonight it's a three way tie between PR, DR and Venezuela to be determined by Team Quality Index whatever that is!

Lack of drama all around yesterday. After a bunch of really tight and exciting games throughout the tournament the games yesterday were not close. Puerto Rico's win was not enough to get them in so today we get;

2:30 Dominican Republic - Mexico
6:30 Colombia - Venezuela

The DR have been underwhelming every time I've seen them but with 21 championships including a record 10 by this year's representative Tigres del Licey this is their tournament. Similarly Venezuela's strong performance is heavily weighted by their 20-3 thrashing of Cuba on Sunday. Take that out and their run differential was actually negative.

Despite going 2-5 Curacao acquitted themselves admirably. They simply couldn't hit enough to support a pretty solid pitching performance with a series low 18 runs scored in 7 games. Cuban baseball continues to disappoint and after an opening game extra inning victory over Curacao they lost 6 in a row.

Score one for my scouting acumen as the Dominicans pounded Mexico 8-3 today. Venezuela up early on Colombia 2-0.

Dominicans kept making me look foolish and took the title with a 3-0 win over hosts Venezuela. Venezuela never really threatened the DR pitching staff and the Dominicans just put across single runs to earn the win.

In the third place game Mexico defeated Colombia 1-0.