Tigres Del Licey - History

History

Circa 1900, baseball in the Dominican Republic was only a minor pastime, due to the heavy political turmoil surrounding the country back then. But by 1907, baseball was increasing in popularity with two amateur teams ("Ozama" and "Nuevo Club") being the most popular. Licey was the first attempt to team up as an antagonist for these two teams.

The Licey team was founded as the result of a meeting that took place in the house of Vicente María Vallejo, on el Conde Street, in Santo Domingo's Colonial Zone, on November 7, 1907. Founding members were: George and Cuncún Pou, Luis and Federico Fiallo, Luis and Pinchán Valejo, Luis Castillo, Salvador Piñeyro, Alvaro Alvarez, Tutú Martínez, Angel and Chichí Mieses, Arturo Perdomo, Bi Sanchez, Virgilio Abreu, Alberto Peña, Arturo Nolasco and Tulio Piña. Many of the founding members of the original team were also part of the first roster.

Over the next 15 years Licey became so dominant that an agreement was made among the three other competing teams (Los Muchachos, San Carlos and Delco Lite) to form a new team, composed of their best players, in order to beat Licey. This team, called "Leones del Escogido" ( Lions of the Chosen one ), still exists and the teams share the same stadium in Santo Domingo.

During what Dominicans call the "first stage" of the country's baseball history, the game was only played during the day. The game's "second stage" didn’t begin until dictator Rafael Trujillo built the capital's Estadio Quisqueya in 1955, a brilliantly designed and built stadium for the time. With the stadium came lights and what is considered the Dominican's golden age of baseball.