- Source: Caimanes de Barranquilla
The Caimanes de Barranquilla are a baseball team in the Colombian Professional Baseball League. They have participated in the league since the 1984–85 season, playing in the 12,000-capacity Estadio Édgar Rentería in Barranquilla. Caimanes are the most successful team in Colombian baseball, having won 13 league titles, most recently during the 2023–24 season. They also won the 2022 Caribbean Series, making Colombia the first new country to win the tournament since Mexico's Naranjeros de Hermosillo won their first title in 1976.
History
Caimanes was founded in 1984, during the so-called "second era" of professional Colombian baseball. It replaced two teams, Cerveza Águila and Café Universal, that both folded the season before, leaving Barranquilla without a professional team. Caimanes won the title in its inaugural season. However, the league would fold by 1988.
In 1998, the success of Colombian-born players in Major League Baseball, most notably Édgar Rentería (who was on the 1997 world champion Florida Marlins), led to a meeting in Miami of Colombian baseball personalities including Edinson Rentería, Edgar Perez and José Martínez (who led and contributed to the development of Colombian Professional Baseball between 1979 and 1985). The meeting established a working group consisting of the businessmen involved with professional baseball in Colombia in the 1980s and new executives from the cities of Barranquilla and Cartagena. This working group was presented with a proposal to revive professional baseball in Colombia under the leadership of the Rentería family. The working group decided to move forward with the proposal, beginning the 1999–2000 season with four teams, two in Barranquilla (Caimanes and Electricos) and two in Cartagena (Tigres and Indios).
Caimanes previously played at Estadio Tomás Arrieta, until it was demolished and replaced by Estadio Édgar Rentería. During its construction, Caimanes temporarily relocated to Santa Cruz de Lorica, in the nearby Córdoba Department, for the 2015–16 season.