Pastora (baseball club)

There have been four different professional baseball clubs in Venezuela that have played under the name Pastora. These teams have been established in the northwest of the country, particularly in the states of Zulia and Acarigua, and have played in different leagues between 1931 and 2000.

The Pastora team was based in the City of Maracaibo and was sponsored by a local dairy company, while adopting the name Lácteos de Pastora (Pastora Milkers). Although Zulia is a petroleum state, dairy farming is also a major industry there.

After Maracaibo was founded in 1529, shepherds tended cows and goats for their milk and to make cheese and other dairy products. On one hand, Pastora is the Spanish word for shepherd; on the other hand, the patron saint of the neighbor state of Lara is La Divina Pastora (The Divine Shepherdess).

Each January 14, her statue is typically carried on the main streets of Barquisimeto from the city of Santa Rosa, in the outskirts of Barquisimeto, until it reaches the Metropolitan Cathedral of Barquisimeto which is about five miles away. The devotion to the Divina Pastora in Venezuela dates from 1736, when the parish priest of the town of Santa Rosa commissioned a sculptor to make a statue of the Immaculate Conception. Unexpectedly, the figure that was delivered was of the Divina Pastora.

Pastora debuted in the extinct Zulian Baseball League First Division, which was created in 1932 and folded at the end of the 1940 season. After five years of absence, the league resumed operations in 1946 and remained active until 1952.

Pastora played in all these seasons, while winning the 1934 and 1948 titles. The most successful team in this period was the Gavilanes BBC, which won 13 of the 17 tournaments played, eight with Ernesto Aparicio at the helm. In 1951, Orange Victoria won the league championship remaining.

Interestingly, a storied baseball rivalry between Gavilanes and Pastora captured the fans' attention with fiery displays in every season.

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