The Tiburones de La Guaira (English: La Guaira Sharks) are a baseball team in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League (LVBP). Though they nominally represent La Guaira (playing at the Estadio Jorge Luis García Carneiro), they also play home games at the Estadio Universitario in nearby Caracas. Tiburones have won eight national championships since their founding in 1962, most recently in 2024.
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History
In 1962 the Licoreros de Pampero team, which was founded in 1955, was sold for the symbolic price of one Bolívar by his owner Alejandro Hernández to José Antonio Casanova, who was considered the greatest Venezuelan manager at the time. The new team changed its name to Tiburones de la Guaira.
Casanova, who was also the first manager of the team, did not have enough financial resources to go through an entire season. He then talked to his friend, Dr. Jesús Morales Valarino, who suggested an alliance with an important group of personalities and traders such as Manuel Malpica, Jose Antonio Diaz, Mario Gomez y Pablo Diaz. In that moment Tiburones de la Guaira was born, taking the field for first time ever in the 1962–1963 season. It was Morales' idea to take the team to the city of La Guaira, in order to take advantage of a city with no team yet numerous baseball fans.
In their first season, the Tiburones finished with a 23–19 record, missing the finals disputed between the Leones del Caracas and Industriales de Valencia. The team struggled in 1963–1964, ending third with a 23–27 record, being locked out of contention. La Guaira club would have to wait until its third season to win the first league championship, in a five-game confrontation against the Leones.
La Guaira was managed by Casanova until that year, and had remarkable players such as MLB Hall of Famers Luis Aparicio and Rollie Fingers, and Ángel Bravo, José Herrera and Elio Chacón as top Venezuelan figures. Casanova's contract expired in 1965 and the board of directors decided to finish the work relationship buying all his stock. Then Pedro Padrón Panza, who was among the original founders, bought all the stock to become the single owner.
At the time, Padrón worked hard to settle an important base of players which was later known as "La Guerrilla", because –no matter the score of a game– they were a never-surrender bunch of players who gave all to the cause. Some notable names includes the likes of Ozzie Guillén, Carlos Martinez, Gustavo Polidor, Luis Salazar and Luis Mercedes Sánchez, among others.
Padrón suffered a long illness starting in the early 1990s, which affected the level of his beloved team as well. He died in 1999, aged 78, leaving the control of the franchise to his son, Pedro Padrón Briñez, also known as "Peruchito". Nevertheless, Padrón Jr. and his son died in the 1999 Vargas tragedy that killed tens of thousands of people.
Following the 2000–2001 season under manager Luis Salazar, the Tiburones reached the 2011–2012 final series, losing to the Tigres de Aragua in six games. They also competed in an extra-game playoff for a final series spot in the 2008–2009 season against the same opponent.
Tiburones won the title in 2023—24 over Cardenales de Lara. At the 2024 Caribbean Series, Tiburones pitcher Ángel Padrón threw a nine-inning no-hitter against Nicaragua's Gigantes de Rivas, the first no-hitter in the tournament since 1952 (which was thrown against Venezuela).
Championship titles/managers
1964–1965: José Antonio Casanova
1965–1966: Tony Pacheco
1968–1969: Wilfredo Calviño
1970–1971: Graciano Ravelo
1982–1983: Oswaldo Virgil
1984–1985: Aurelio Monteagudo
1985–1986: José Martínez
2023-2024: Ozzie Guillén
Team highlights
1964–1965 : Darold Knowles won the pitching Triple Crown
2013–2014 : Alex Cabrera became the first batting Triple Crown winner in LVBP history
LVBP regular season leaders
Hitting
Batting average
Home runs
Runs batted in
Pitching
Wins
* Tied with Lew Krausse Jr. (Caracas)
** Tied with Jim McGlothlin (Valencia)
*** Tied with Diego Seguí (Caracas)
Earned run average
Strikeouts
All-time foreign players
Sources: PuraPelota.com
Retired numbers
3 Luis Salazar
8 Ángel Bravo
11 Luis Aparicio
13 Ozzie Guillén
14 Gustavo Polidor
15 Robert Marcano
40 Carlos Martínez
41 Aurelio Monteagudo
Attendances
In the 2015-16 season, the Tiburones de La Guaira became the club with the fourth-highest average home attendance in the league, with an average of 8,324. In the 2023-24 season, the Tiburones drew an average home league attendance of 8,364, the second-highest in the league.