‘Stick and ball’ lives here, too:


At the close of an afternoon of Puerto Rico Tip-Off basketball, a short stroll from Coliseo Roberto Clemente will introduce its neighboring sporting venue, San Juan’s considerable Bithorn Stadium, where baseball and the Caribbean World Series reign – Major League Baseball held its opening day game here in 2001. Bithorn is named after a Borinqueño, a native of Puerto Rico. Hiram Bithorn was the island’s first native son to play in the major leagues (Chicago Cubs, 1942). The stadium also accommodates professional soccer teams, and often has played host to plenty of concerts, music festivals and other performances by international artists, from the Jackson Five to Metallica to Rihanna. Also, just half an hour from San Juan is Hipodromo Camarero, Puerto Rico’s only racetrack. The track is home to many internationally recognized Puerto Rican jockeys now and throughout history, and is named after Camarero, the Puerto Rican thoroughbred whose entry in the 1950s remains in the Guinness Book of World Records – winner of 56 consecutive races.