ESPN Deportes to broadcast Venezuelan Professional Baseball League.

ESPN and the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League, the top professional baseball league in Venezuela, have reached an agreement to bring winter league baseball from Venezuela to ESPN Deportes for the first time, it was announced by Lino Garcia, general manager, ESPN Deportes and Ramon Guillermo Aveledo, president of the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League.

The new pact grants ESPN Deportes exclusive rights via all means and media. Under the terms of the agreement, ESPN Deportes will air one regular-season game per week, plus exclusive rights to selected playoff games and exclusive coverage of the Championship Series. The agreement also grants opportunities involving ESPN Deportes’ multimedia assets, including ESPN Deportes Radio and ESPNdeportes.com.

“This announcement is cause to celebrate for a variety of reasons,” said Garcia. “Today, we have significantly enhanced the offering of our winter baseball programming line-up which already includes winter baseball from the Dominican Republic and Mexico. Through this agreement, one network, ESPN Deportes, will now feature three of the four Caribbean winter leagues for fans in the U.S. Adding Venezuelan baseball gives ESPN Deportes a winter baseball schedule that is absolutely second to none. We are also delivering a message to our viewers and affiliates that for ESPN Deportes the baseball season doesn’t end with the final out of the World Series.”

“This agreement with ESPN is a great step forward for the League,” said Aveledo. “The deal will strengthen our professional baseball and bolster ESPN Deportes’ strong programming line up. Baseball fans in the United States will be able to experience the passion of baseball, the most popular sport in Venezuela, and see the future heroes of major leagues, in action, today.”

With the acquisition of the Venezuelan Baseball League, the Wednesday night presentations of the Dominican Baseball League will be moved to Friday nights at 6:30 p.m., ET. The Dominican baseball Sunday schedule will remain at 4:00 p.m. ESPN Deportes’ first Venezuelan baseball game will be aired Wednesday, November 8, featuring Cardenales de Lara vs. Navegantes de Magallanes 6:30 pm., EST.

The Venezuelan Professional Baseball League consists of eight teams in two divisions (East & West) which play 62 games from October to December in the elimination (opening) round. The top two teams from each division, as well as the best third place team move on to the 16 game round robin semifinals in January. The top two teams from the semifinals advance to a best of 7 series in a 2-3-2 homefield format at the end of January. The Venezuelan champion moves on to the Caribbean World Series to face the champions of the baseball leagues of the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Mexico. Venezuela has won the Caribbean World Series six times, most recently in 2006 by the Leones del Caracas.