Martin Pernička will play winter ball in Aruba
Caribbean island of Aruba offers, beside nice beaches, the winter baseball league, which is now played for the second time under name Proline Baseball. The ambitious competition will have a few Czech connections this year, the most notable one being the signing of Martin Pernička, who will play the league as the first Czech in the history.
Czechs fans are not familiar with the league and that’s why we asked Pernička whether he knew how the league was formed. Since a former Draci player Eugene Helder is one of the co-founders of Proline Baseball, Czech player had plenty of knowledge. “It was formed by a group that wanted to see winter baseball being played in Aruba, as most of the local players had nowhere to play. The conditions are ideal, thanks to the weather which is nice all year round. The next reason are the professional players, who play outside of Aruba during summer. Organizers want to show these players to their fans. Proline Baseball Aruba consists of three leagues. Proline, Proline Classico, and Proline Prospect. Proline league is without an age restriction. Classico is 40+ and Prospect is under 16,” wrote Pernička for us.
The draft of the league happened a few days ago and Pernička was picked by Eagles. The league is played by three more teams – Ravens, Falcons, and Hawks. Pernička is not coming to a completely unknown environment as he will play along Eugene Helder, but also Gillian Wernet, who played for Draci. He will also get to play along Chadwick Tromp, who payed 40 MLB games in the past 4 seasons for San Francisco and Atlanta.
“Organizers have lofty goals. They want to get everything to the next level, be it the number of the teams, number of foreigners, or the viewership numbers. They want to make small steps to even allow to connect Proline to Serie Del Caribe (Caribbean Series),” said Martin Pernička about founders’ ambitions.
The league itself starts at 22:30 CET. If you want to watch the games life, you can do so at the Facebook page Power Sports Aruba. The schedule and information can be found at www.prolinebaseballaruba.com.
