Serie Monumental

The Serie Monumental (English: Monumental Series) was an international club baseball tournament held in Venezuela in late 1945–46. It saw a team of all-stars from the American Negro leagues play their opposites in the Venezuelan League. The series, played only once, was the immediate precursor to the 1946–50 Interamerican Series (and is sometimes considered the first of those contests), and by extension, to the modern Caribbean Series.

Although the Major League Baseball color barrier had not yet been broken in 1945, the Negro league all-stars (dubbed the Estrellas Negras) included several future Hall of Famers, including Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella. The Americans first played several exhibition games in Caracas against the Cerveceria Caracas club (calling themselves the Criollo All-Stars), which included active major-leaguer Alex Carrasquel; and another team (the "Caribbean All-Stars", with an international roster).^[1] The North American team finished with a 7–2 record, with Cerveceria/Criollos at 3–4–1 and the Caribbean All-Stars at 2–5–1.^[2] The Negro leaguers then traveled to Maracaibo to play an all-star team from Zulia State, headlined by Luis Aparicio Sr.^[1]

The series came in the wake of Venezuela hosting the 1944 and 1945 Amateur World Series.^[3] The tournament was a commercial success, and an impetus for the professionalization of the baseball in Venezuela; the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League opened its first season in early January 1946, with Venezuelan teams contracting several Black players from the tour.^[4] Sabios de Vargas reportedly tried to hire Jackie Robinson, who hit .339 in the series with a home run and five RBIs, but either he or the Brooklyn Dodgers (who had recently signed him) declined.^[5][6][4]