The mother of Victor Zambrano, a former Major League Baseball player, was recently kidnapped in the country of Venezuela. The news was reported by Peter Greenberg, the pitcher’s agent.
According to reports, Zambrano’s mom was taken by eight men in a farm in the city of Villa de Cura. Zambrano currently plays professional baseball in a Venezuelan league.
Zambrano last pitched in the big leagues in 2007 when he split the season with the Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles. He’s also pitched for the New York Mets and Tampa Bay Rays.
Kidnappings are somewhat common in Latin America. Typically, a relative of …read more

An underdog against the powerful lineup of Venezuela, South Korea quickly showed that they weren’t intimidated. Sprinting to a 7-0 lead after two innings, South Korea easily held on to win by a final score of 10-2.
South Korea’s lone Major League Baseball player provided the big hit in the first inning. Choo Shin-Soo of the Cleveland Indians hit a three-run shot off of Venezuelan starter Carlos Silva.
On the mound, South Korea got a huge performance from Yoon Suk-Min. Only 22-years-old, Yoon gave up only two earned runs, seven hits and one walk in 6.1 innings, while striking out four batters. …read more

The United States has had a rollercoaster past two days in the 2009 World Baseball Classic. On Tuesday, the US rallied in the ninth inning to beat Puerto Rico and avoid elimination. On Wednesday, the United States got beat handily by Venezuela.
The hero on Tuesday night was David Wright. Down by a run in the bottom of the ninth, Wright hit a single that scored two runs to give their 6-5 margin of victory. With the loss, Puerto Rico was eliminated. Oddly enough, the last time Puerto Rico and the US met, Puerto Rico won that game 11-1.
On Wednesday, Venezuela …read more

On Monday, two exciting contests took place during the 2009 World Series Classic. The first game saw Cuba go up against Mexico. The loser of this game was to be eliminated.
After getting up early, Cuba saw Mexico tie the ballgame. But a five-run spurt put Cuba up for good. Mexico made a late rally but it was too little, too late for Mexico. Cuba, on the other hands, lives to play another day.
In the other game on Monday, Puerto Rico went up against Venezuela. In this contest, the winner advanced and the loser would go against the United States in …read more

Ozzie Guillen manages the Chicago White Sox. Miguel Cabrera plays (very well, I might add) for the Florida Marlins. Both hail from Venezuela.
Now Guillen is telling Cabrera to lose weight. Quoth the Chicago skipper:
When you’re getting older and you go down, they say you’re fat. Right now it’s, “Oh, he’s a little chubby. He likes to eat.” When you’re not hitting .340 with 40 home runs, they’re going to call you a fat boy from Venezuela. You’d better lose some weight.
This is sort of touching, but it’s also sort of weird. Like, it’s nice to see Guillen concerned about his …read more