CAIMANERA

[viajeradelrio]

A “Caimanera” is an unofficial and improvised baseball game played in the streets, usually without referees, in which players give their own sentences. It is usually performed in the playgrounds of the schools, although sometimes it is played on terrains or sports fields; however, the "Caimaneras" is often played without the implements or without the exact number of players, with rules changed depending on the field where the game is being held or the number of players that are participating. This term can be applied to "soccer." It is important to highlight that we have the verb "caimanear" and the noun caimán (alligator). "- Source: http://www.tubabel.com/definicion/23215-caimanera.

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You only have one ball, the one you have. The desire is already made of sweat and laughter among those who share gossips and anecdotes of the same street or community.

The game just starts! No anthems or uniforms, the full freedom to play is the final score. Any rules? According to the facts that could happen and some fault committed, it will be determined if the cause is too obvious to let it pass by. Then, everything is established by trust, in which the nicknames, or the now called bullying that arise from a friendship that seeks nothing more than lingering over time; and to achieve this, there is no space for referees in such a loud party of gestures, whistles, screaming and winks that will later be lost when they become professionals with anthems, uniforms ... and umpires.

CAIMANERAS can be held in soccer or baseball. Generally, it consists on a two-teams game with the same number of members and physical abilities (read game rules, below); in the case of a football caimanera, there are two goals established with stones or blocks. These meetings take place in streets or courts near the residences of the team players. The aim is to pass the ball between the stones or blocks of the goal. The team that scores the most goals wins or, in some cases, when the team members get tired or the mother calls them to bathe, dine and go to sleep.

There is no definite time in clocks, but in the physical capacity of most players to go after the ball, expressed in fatigue.

The CAIMANERA is a term used in popular spaces to summon an "unofficial" game. The cutest thing is a friendly, with the sole intention of having a good time.

In the CAIMANERAS kids play barefoot, like the very freedom of being a player, a child and a being without anthems, without uniforms, and much less, without umpires.

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Investigating about the CAIMANERAS, I came across an excellent writing which it summarizes in a very simple, explicit and clear way about the "Rules of the Game" of these street meetings that bring together the spark, the flavor and the grace that characterizes us as Venezuelan-Caribbean. Copy textually, with all its colloquial and prosaic terms. Source: http://www.tubabel.com/definicion/23215-caimanera

• The fat child is always the goalkeeper.

• The game ends when everyone is tired.

• If there is no ball, they make it with a juice or milk pack (panchito)

• The goals are two stones or two bricks and there will always be a team that has the smallest goal.

• If the game goes 10 to 0 and you must leave because it's late, you always leave saying, "ok, the team that scores, wins".

• There is never a referee, each one whistles his fault.

• It is considered fault when it is very clear, there is blood or someone comes out crying.

• Nobody wants to be the goalkeeper. Each player is a goalkeeper after a new score.

• Normally there is no limit lines. They play with the bounce of the wall.

• Girls do not play.

• The offside does not exist.

• If the owner of the ball gets up and leaves, the game is over.

• The two best players cannot belong to the same team. They are the captains of each team and they choose who plays in it.

• If at the end of the players' choice, one of the teams has better players, the weak team complains saying "they have it stolen".

• If you are the last one to be chosen, it is humiliating.

• The penalty kick is always charged by the team captain.

• The match is stopped when an adult arrived.

• The one that least knows how to play is the defender.

• Advice to the defenders: you can pass the ball or the forward, but never both.

• If the elderly arrives to play you must leave the track or field, but not before protesting.

• There is always a neighbor who threatens to take the ball away.

• When a team scores by passing the ball over the goalkeeper, all the opposing team shout "Alta" and the goal is not worth it.

• There is no yellow card and red card.

• The one who throws the ball off, must go to look for it.

• If there is a penalty, the goalkeeper (fat guy) is removed and the best of the team will be the goalkeeper.

• The team that loses the game leaves and is replaced by the team that has been waiting (llevarla parada).

• The loser team pays the soda.

• The owner of the ball will always play

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Images taken by me from the lens of a NIKON camera