Back at bat: Venezuelan baseball team finds a home in Colorado
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AURORA, Colo. — !Vamos Mathias¡ !Metele los kilos¡
Chants for Mathias and the rattling of the dugout fence echoed around the Central Park-West little league baseball field in Aurora. The eight and nine year olds that make up the Braves on this team finally have a space to cheer and exercise their competitive spirit.
This team is part of one big group of players known as Team Venezuela. It consists of more than 40 kids who are all migrants to Colorado, mostly from Venezuela. Initially, they gathered to play casual ball in various parks around Denver, but this fall these kids played in official leagues.
“We feel good. It's very good for the children's development. They enjoy it a lot and seem very happy,” Edgar Ramos, the Braves coach and a migrant from Venezuela, said in Spanish.
It’s been a long journey for Team Venezuela. Ramos traveled to the United States in 2023. For most of the journey, he and his family walked hundreds of miles through several countries including the Darien Gap, a treacherous jungle separating Panama and Columbia. Many of the Braves players had a similar journey to get here.
Many Venezuelans fleeing an economic and political crisis in their home country were able to find refuge in the United States thanks to two Temporary Protected Status (TPS) orders.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem determined earlier this month that Venezuela no longer meets the conditions for its TPS designation. She terminated the 2021 order, effective November 7. The Trump administration’s challenge to the 2023 order was, in the short term, successful after a Supreme Court decision. The decision removes legal protections from more than 300,000 Venezuelan migrants.
Ramos attended a court hearing for his immigration status in June. He said this preliminary hearing didn’t involve much besides verifying his address and setting his next court appearance for September 2026. Still, he was scared to show up.
“I met a man when I worked at Coors Field this season, and he had his immigration appointment and didn't return home,” said Ramos. “I remember leaving my apartment and car keys with a friend in case we didn't get back.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have targeted routine immigration hearings in multiple cities in an effort to detain and deport immigrants. Earlier this month, an Illinois county judge signed an order barring ICE from arresting people inside courthouses.
Still, Ramos said there is fear among his family and friends that a trip to the grocery store could be their last in this country.
More than 60,000 migrants settled in Colorado from May 2023 to January 2025, creating demand for temporary shelters and other services in Denver, where most of the migrants arrived. In the fall of 2024, Ramos realized he could help the children who were staying in temporary shelters.
“You could see their faces … They were bored. I mean, I saw them, they were sad,” said Ramos.
He knocked on doors and asked parents if he could take some kids to a nearby ballpark and give them some training.
In Venezuela, baseball is essentially a national sport. Ramos describes it as, “practically when you're born, the first thing you're given is a glove, a bat and a ball.”
That fall, Ramos gathered a group of 15 boys to play in a league. With support from two local teenagers and the surrounding community, they were able to sign up for Altitude All Sports’ Lil’ Bombers League. The team won the championship that year, not that it mattered to Ramos.
Because of communication and time barriers, Ramos did not register a team for the spring season. But several news organizations, including Rocky Mountain PBS, published stories about Team Venezuela and their hope to play in a league once again.
“Because the times they play, you can see their happiness,” Ramos said in May. “As the parents say, baseball is a way to distract themselves, to relax more from everything they've lived through to get here.”
Paige Burkett, the program director at a nonprofit called Chance Sports, saw the initial fundraiser for Team Venezuela in March and knew her organization could help.
Chance Sports typically funds scholarships to individual athletes, but, Burkett said, they used funds from an express grant to directly pay the more than $5,000 in registration fees for two teams in the Lil’ Bombers League: one team for 5-7 year olds and another for 8-9 year olds.
“This is the basis of what Chance Sports is to give kids the chance to play sports. [It’s] been a really cool process to be a part of, the whole community has come together to support these families,” said Burkett.
At $225 per player for the Lil’ Bombers League, registration fees are just the start of expenses for baseball. On top of that, Burkett said they reimbursed Andrew Turner about $1,000 when he paid for jerseys and hats.
Turner is the father of one of the two high schoolers who organized the initial fundraising for Team Venezuela. Since then, Turner has become the team’s supporter, translator, liaison to the league and friend, said Ramos.
Team Venezuela also received help in joining a second league for its U9 team. They played in the Rocky Mountain Junior Baseball League with the North Denver Bambinos. Nate Aguilar started the Bambinos in 2016 to help develop youth baseball in the northern Denver area.
“It’s not going to be an easy road for Edgar,” said Aguilar, referring to the different rules and structure for youth baseball here as opposed to in Venezuela.
“Obviously, he is very passionate, and I hope to continue my relationship with him and help set him up for success,” he said.
So far, so good. Ramos’ U9 team won the fall championship under the Bambinos team name in the Rocky Mountain Junior Baseball League. Even though he is proud as their baseball coach, Ramois is even more proud to help shape them into good young men.
“I also know that they will always remember that first coach who taught them the basics of baseball,” said Ramos.
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. To read more about why you can trust the journalism of Rocky Mountain PBS, please visit our editorial standards and practices page.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. To read more about why you can trust the journalism of Rocky Mountain PBS, please visit our editorial standards and practices page.