By The Associated Press

Published: Sunday, October 28, 2012, 8:06 p.m.
Updated: Monday, October 29, 2012

MARACAY, Venezuela — On a ragged baseball diamond, its grass tall and infield dirt pockmarked, nearly 200 boys practice for hours every day. Many of them are inspired by the example of Detroit Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera, who learned the game on this very field.

The baseball school in the poor neighborhood where Cabrera grew up is one of many across Venezuela, a web for training young ballplayers that has made the country an emerging power in Major League Baseball.

A record nine Venezuelans are on the rosters of the Tigers and the San Francisco Giants in this year's World Series. And the players have been giving Venezuelans plenty to cheer about with feats like Pablo Sandoval's three-homer game and Gregor Blanco's diving catches in left field for the Giants.

Baseball has long been Venezuela's top sport and a national passion, producing such greats as Dave Concepcion and Hall of Famer Luis Aparicio. But it has blossomed like never before the past decade and sent ever larger contingents to the major leagues from a large and well-organized system of youth leagues and baseball schools.

On this season's Opening Day rosters, the 66 Venezuelans were second only to the 95 from the Dominican Republic for foreign-born players. For the World Series, the nine Venezuelans, nine Dominicans and two Puerto Ricans on the two teams produced a record 20 foreign-born players for the championship, surpassing the previous high of 16.

The Giants have five Venezuelans: Sandoval, Blanco, Marco Scutaro, Jose Mijares and Hector Sanchez. The Tigers have four: Anibal Sanchez, Avisail Garcia, Omar Infante and Cabrera — who this season became the first player since 1967 to win the Triple Crown, leading the American League in average, home runs and RBI.

Young fans in Venezuela have been watching the World Series with excitement. Often, they root for hometown heroes, and at the baseball school in Maracay, nearly everyone is behind Cabrera and the Tigers.

Cabrera comes from a family steeped in baseball. His mother, Gregoria, played 12 years on Venezuela's national softball team. Uncle Jose Torres runs the baseball school training kids as young as 3 at David Torres Stadium. The field is named for Torres' late brother, who was Cabrera's first mentor.

“The kids dream of playing in the major leagues, and their parents want to plant their children in this field hoping that seed might become the next Miguel Cabrera,” Torres said.

One of them is 11-year-old Adriangel Torres, a nephew of the coach and a cousin of Cabrera.

“My dream is also to be a major leaguer and bat like he does,” Adriangel said.

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