The winter leagues move toward their conclusion.

There's a change in the Caribbean Series this year.  Instead of four teams, there are now five.  There are, of course, the champions of the four winter leagues we've been following all season--Magallanes from the Venezuelan League, Licey from the Dominican League, Mayaguez from the Puerto Rican League, and Hermosillo from the Mexican League.  The fifth team is Villa Clara, the champion of the Cuban Winter League.

Clearly, the addition team required a change in format.  So, we start out with a four-game, five-day round robin, in which each team plays each of the others once.  That will be played from Feb. 1-5.  At the end of the round robin, one team is eliminated and the other four go into a single-elimination tournament.  The semi-final round will be played Feb. 6 and the championship game Feb. 7.