[FuzzyRussianHat]

The Central American Baseball Association became the first of the major leagues to expand beyond their original teams. In 1962, two teams were added to the Mexican League and two were added to the Caribbean League. The Mexican League North Division added the Torreon Tomahawks and the South Division added the Queretaro Terriers. Torreon fills a market gap in the north central part of the country west of Monterrey, but well south of Chihuahua and Hermosillo. Queretaro is roughly midway between Mexico City and Leon, adding another in the highly populated central part of the nation.

While the Mexican League additions made for two seven-team divisions, the Caribbean League expansion saw both teams into the Island Division, creating an unbalanced situation with eight in one and six in the other. With all of the major continental Central American markets covered, the Caribbean League opted to tap the island nations without teams. Thus added were the Bahamas Buccaneers and the Trinidad Trail Blazers.



With the additions also came an expanded postseason. The returning Island Division teams in particular had concern over the unbalanced division, especially when that division had often had the top two or three records in the league over the Continental Division. The change was made throughout CABA to add a single wild card, making it three playoff teams per league. The top division winner would get a bye, while the other division winner would host essentially a four game series (officially, a best-of-five with a one-game advantage to the host). The division champ would only need to win twice in four games, while the wild card would need to win three. This preserved a reward for a division title, but allowed great teams in stacked divisions a chance to power forward. The expansion draft had a chance to shake up things a bit, but was designed with the goal in mind not to damage any existing teams too strongly. Therefore, it was expected that the new squads would need a few years to grow. It would take six seasons before one of them made it to the postseason.



The addition of the wild card allowed defending CABA champion Chihuahua to make it back the playoffs in 1962. Juarez took the Mexican League North Division at 103-59, leading in both runs scored (737) and runs allowed (534). The Warriors finished 94-68, finishing one game ahead of Mexicali and five ahead of both Hermosillo and Leon to get the berth. The Lions playoff streak was snapped at four years as they finished two behind Ecatepec for the South Division title. At 91-71, the Explosion earned their first playoff berth since 1951. Torreon was the top performing expansion team at a respectable 79-83, while Queretaro was 65-97.

Leading the Jesters in their success was the legendary 1B Prometheo Garcia, who tied Kiko Velazquez by winning his eighth MVP. Guadalajara had traded their longtime hero at age 39 to Juarez for prospects and Garcia delivered as always, leading the league in average (.398), OBP (.445), OPS (1.133), wRC+ (232), WAR (9.7), and doubles (41), adding 36 home runs and 105 RBI. The .398 average was second-best ever in a CABA season, behind his own .406 from 1949. It would ultimately be the final CABA season for Garcia, who retired as the all-time leader in hits (3871), runs (1850), home runs (753), RBI (2042), and WAR (166.8). He’d leave for Major League Baseball and play six more seasons at a high level, switching the conversation from CABA’s all-time best hitter, to perhaps the best in baseball history.

Pitcher of the Year meanwhile went to Hermosillo’s Santiago Esquivel for the second time in three seasons. He was the strikeout leader with 312, adding a 2.19 ERA over 258.2 innings and 8.2 WAR. Esquivel also won his third consecutive Gold Glove.



In the Caribbean League, Santo Domingo and Honduras were again the top teams. The two-time defending league champ Dolphins won the Island Division for the fifth time in six years, while the Horsemen won their fifth straight Continental Division. Both teams with 108-54 and Santo Domingo had the tiebreaker to earn the bye. The wild card race was in the islands as Jamaica took it at 99-63, two games ahead of 97-65. Both expansion teams were at the bottom; Trinidad at 56-106 and Bahamas at 48-114. For the Jazz, they earned their first playoff berth since 1950.

Haiti’s Cipriano Masias won the league MVP. The 26-year Puerto Rican left fielder had the lead in average (.354), OBP (.396), and OPS (.990), adding 202 hits and 6.6 WAR. Diego Morales won his first Pitcher of the Year for Honduras. The Dominican lefty led in wins (21-5), posting a 2.18 ERA over 251.1 innings with 265 strikeouts and 8.2 WAR.

The first wild card to knock out a division champ was Chihuahua, who despite the one-game handicap against them, went on to sweep Ecatepec. In the Mexican League Championship Series, Juarez edged the defending champ Warriors in seven, giving the Jesters only their second-ever league title; the prior one was 1912; CABA’s second season.

The Caribbean Wild Card round had no surprises with Honduras sweeping Jamaica, setting up Horsemen versus Dolphins for the third straight season in the Caribbean League Championship Series. It was a seven game classic with game seven going 10 innings. Santo Domingo took the finale 6-5 in extras to claim the series in seven and the third-ever Caribbean League three-peat, joining Puerto Rico (1943-45) and Havana (1911-13). The Dolphins continued to roll and swept Juarez in the CABA championship, giving SD its second CABA crown in three years and fourth overall title.





Other notes: In addition to all of the other accolades mentioned earlier, Prometheo Garcia earned his 14^th Silver Slugger. He joins Kiko Velazquez (14) and Emmanuel Zavala (16) as the only CABA players with that many