Chapita - Memories of Venezuela

A jugar chapita! (Let's play chapita)

This is a term that we use to say that we are going to play a kind of baseball but instead of using a bat and baseballs we use a wood broom handle and bottle caps!

This is one of the best memories I have of my childhood in my country of birth. For Venezuelans this is one the most important hobbies. Years and years of drinking beers and sodas gave us the idea of doing something else with bottle caps and that is when this traditional game was born.

I come from two families where the passion for baseball runs through our blood and therefore playing CHAPITA was essential to learn to bat! In the city of Cabimas where I used to live as a child, playing between cousins and neighbors was very common during the weekends or daily after school. I remember that we used to play for hours and hours under the sun that characterizes our little paradise called Zulia.

I still remember that the rules are very similar to baseball: Three strikes are an out (strikes are counted when you don’t swing and the catcher catches the cap), four fouls are an out, if you swing and you miss the pitch and the catcher catches it is an out too and the runs are counted every time you hit the cap and the fielder doesn’t catch the cap in the air or if you hit a grounder and they don’t catch it before the second bounce on the ground and to play you just need the stick handle, bottle caps and teams of two, a pitcher/fielder and the catcher.

There were players with really good skills and experience that used to pitch in many different ways that was really hard to hit. Fastballs, curveballs and all kind of pitches, some of them used to go over your head or behind your back and fell just is the zone for the catcher to catch it and get an strike, two or even strike you out.

Chapita was a game for every person who wanted to play, had the skills to pitch and specially hit the small caps and of course for the shameless guys that used the caps from the bottles of beers they were drinking at the time of playing. hehe!😅

This is how every Venezuelan learn how to bat because “if you can hit the small caps when you hit baseballs you are going to destroy them” like our grandpas used to say! You can ask Miggy, Cargo or any Venezuelan in the big leagues any time!

This is a game that we have kept for decades and is a huge part of our culture, tradition and the day by day of all Venezuelans. This is how I remember my home country! VENEZUELA!