Sports in Venezuela.

Without any question the most followed sport in Venezuela is baseball. It is the only country in South America where baseball is more important than football (soccer). Baseball was brought to Venezuela by the Americans that came to work with the first oil companies in the beginning of the 20th century. Baseball is also the most important sport in the Caribbean sea which is north of Venezuela so that's another major influence.

There is a large number of  great baseball player in the Major League of Baseball which is the league of the United States and the most important in the world. Some of them have achieved great success like Miguel Cabrera in the Detroit Tigers, Pablo Sandoval (known as Kung Fu Panda) in the San Francisco Giants, Felix Hernandez in the Seattle Mariners or Carlos Gonzalez in the Colorado Rockies; just to name a few. In the 2012 World Series a total of nine Venezuelans participated.

(Miguel Cabrera).

The Venezuelan winter league was founded in 1945 is played every year from October to January and it is followed for most of the Venezuelans. It has only eight teams, which are:

-Leones del Caracas (Caracas Lions).
-Navegantes del Magallanes (Magallanes Sailors).
-Tiburones de la Guaira (La Guaira Sharks, my team by the way).
-Cardenales de Lara (Lara Cardinals).
-Tigres de Aragua (Aragua Tigers).
-Aguilas del Zulia (Zulia Eagles).
-Caribes de Anzoategui (Anzoategui Caribbeans).
-Bravos de Margarita (Margarita Braves).

(Teams of the Venezuelan Winter League).

The team that has won more titles is Caracas Lions followed by Magallanes Sailors, Aragua Tigers and La Guaira Sharks.

Now, I have to talk about the sport number 1 in the world, football (soccer). Even though baseball is still the most viewed sport in Venezuela, football has increased really fast in the last decade specially because the Venezuelan National Team has achieved some important wins and right now is close to qualified for the next World Cup in Brazil. The sub-17 team just qualified to the World Cup in Arab Emirates but we are waiting for the adults to do as such. Venezuela has never been in a World Cup yet.

(Venezuela National football team in 2010).

In the national football league there are two major teams which are the Caracas FC and Deportivo Tachira. Every time this two teams play each other there is a massive attendance in the stadium.

Another sport that has increase in ratings in the last few years is basketball but still it is not very followed.

What is your favorite sport? Which sport is the most followed in your country?