The New York Times produced a short video called “Baseball in Venezuela” that features a Venezuelan winter baseball league. The video talks about how professional players have come from all over the world to participate in the league to gain experience and just for the love of the game. It also discusses how fans get extremely involved in watching their teams play, like the Tigres de Aragua.
“Baseball is not a sport in Venezuela,” said Alfredo Villasmil, a baseball columnist who reports on the league. “Baseball is a religion.
“Everybody becomes brothers on the baseball field. If a player performs well, they’re going to chant his name.”
The fans are connected with their team. The video makes it sound like the fans build their daily schedule around when their team plays. That type of fandom is a rare quality in the Northeast Conference, one of the most unrecognized athletic conferences in America.
Above is a promotional video for the Northeast Conference meant to get viewers excited for watching their teams, even if it’s not the championship game. It’s a nice foundational video to help fans understand what the conference is all about and what schools make up the conference.
Ironically, the first school featured in the video is Quinnipiac. It shows a picture of James Johnson, who is a sophomore point guard for the men’s basketball team, and continues down the list of the 12 teams in the NEC. Johnson is quickly becoming one of the most well-known guards in the NEC, and head coach Tom Moore said he is the most well-conditioned player in the conference.
Currently, the men’s basketball team averages 1,499 fans per game, but that number is skewed due to Thursday’s quarterfinals game against Monmouth (2,334 fans).
QU Fans 