Dominican Winter Baseball League Playoffs 2010-11

The Dominican Winter Baseball League Playoffs (LIDOM) are underway.  They have a really cool playoff system.  The Dominican Baseball Guy put up a post about the LIDOM playoff system last year. Briefly, the top 4 of 6 teams make the playoffs and play a 15 game round robin, then the top two teams play a 9 game final series and the winner of that goes to the Caribbean Series.

This year Escogido, Toros, Estrellas, and Gigantes made the round robin.  The two traditional power houses of the league, Licey and Aguilas, missed the playoffs.  This is a major story as Licey and Aguilas are like the Red Sox and Yankees of the LIDOM.  It is a very rare year that both miss the playoffs.

The teams are 5 games into the round robin and all within 1 game of each other (see the standings).  This is a great time to see a game in the Dominican Republic.  The crowds are very big during these playoff series and the atmosphere is great.  Here is the schedule: if you will be in the country try and catch a game.

The economy in the country is not the best right now, so the crowds are not as big as they have been in years past, and the Aguilas and Licey games draw the biggest crowds, but here is an old picture from a Licey vs. Aguilas game, so you get the jest.  The games this year should have a great atmosphere too.