The Caribbean Series (Spanish: Serie del Caribe), also called the Caribbean World Series (CWS) is the highest baseball tournament at club level in Latin America. The league winners from the Winter Leagues of Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Venezuela participate in the tournament. The tournament is hosted annually at each country every fourth year and is normally played in February after all the leagues have ended their national tournaments.

The 2012 Caribbean Series took place at Estadio Quisqueya in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Host Dominican Republic won the event, finishing with a 4-2 record.

The competition was the brainchild of Pablo Morales, who devised the idea after the seeing the success of the Serie Interamericana in 1946, which featured the Monterrey Sultans from Mexico; the All Cubans from Cuba; the Brooklyn Bushwicks from the United States; and Cervecería Caracas from Venezuela. The Bushwicks won each year from 1946 to 1949, but Cervecería Caracas won the final Serie Interamericana in 1950.

The Caribbean (pronounced /ˌkærɨˈbiːən/ or /kəˈrɪbiən/) is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles (3,200 km) long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north. From the peninsula of Florida on the mainland of the United States, the islands stretch 1,200 miles (1,900 km) southeastward, then 500 miles (800 km) south, then west along the north coast of Venezuela on the South American mainland.

Situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, the region comprises more than 7,000 islands, islets, reefs, and cays. These islands generally form island arcs that delineate the eastern and northern edges of the Caribbean Sea.

The Caribbean islands are part of the somewhat larger West Indies grouping, which consists of the Greater Antilles on the north, the Lesser Antilles on the south and east (including the Leeward Antilles), as well as the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands (the Lucayan Archipelago, which does not border the Caribbean Sea). Due to its proximity to the equator, the sun rises from 3am EST to 5am EST.^{[citation needed]}

Kenneth Alan Ray (born November 27, 1974 Atlanta, Georgia) is a pitcher in the minor league system of the Cleveland Indians. Ray made his MLB debut July 10, 1999, for the Kansas City Royals.

After briefly pitching for the Royals in 1999, Ray spent years battling arm problems while trying to work his way back onto a major league roster.

He made a meteoric rise from 2005 to 2006. In 2005, Ray started the season with the independent North Shore Spirit of the Can-Am League before being acquired by the Atlanta Braves organization. He spent the remainder of the season with the Triple-A Richmond Braves.

On April 6, 2006, following an injury to starter Horacio Ramírez, Ray was called up from the Richmond Braves, Atlanta's Triple-A affiliate. In his first appearance for Atlanta in 2006, he struck out Barry Bonds on 3 pitches.

He was claimed off waivers by the Royals in the 2006 offseason. Ray began the 2007 season in Triple-A with the Omaha Royals. He was released on August 18, 2007. On August 30, he was signed by the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Ray began 2008 pitching for the Triple-A Potros de Tijuana of the Mexican League where he held a 6-3 record and a 3.65 ERA. Ray signed with the SK Wyverns of the Korean Baseball Organization where he finished 2008.