Juan Vené, a Venezuelan baseball journalist and one of the longest-running Spanish-language chroniclers of MLB, died Tuesday, Sept. 15 in Miami. He was 97.
“On behalf of Juan Vené, José Rafael Machado Yanes, his family wants to thank you for all your expressions of affection and respect,” read a message posted to Vené’s Twitter/X account on Tuesday in Spanish. “These are difficult moments, but we find peace in so many shared memories and experiences alongside him.”
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Vené was born in Carácas on Jan. 10, 1929. His career as a reporter began in 1947. He began covering the American and National Leagues regularly in 1960.
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His famous column, “Juan Vené en la Pelota” (“Juan Vené in Baseball”), ran for decades and was published across Latin America. In 2020, the column celebrated 60 years.
More than a reporter, Vené became a respected baseball historian, columnist, interviewer, and commentator, whose influence among Spanish-speaking baseball fans was wide-reaching.
Vené was a longtime member of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA). For many years, he was the only Venezuelan baseball writer who received an annual ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
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In 2014, Vené was inducted into the Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame.
In 1960, Vené persuaded his editor to send him to cover the World Series between the Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Yankees. That assignment led to the creation of his famous Juan Vené en la Pelota column, and was the first of 45 consecutive World Series that Vené covered.
Vené published his last column — a look back at coverage of the on-field fight between San Francisco Giants pitcher Juan Marichal and Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Johnny Roseboro — on Aug. 25, 2026, just three weeks before his death.
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In October 1997, Latino Sports held a dinner honoring Vené at the Grand Hyatt in New York. One month later, Rep. José E. Serrano, who represented The Bronx in Congress at the time, entered a lengthy “Tribute to Mr. Juan Vené” into the U.S. House Congressional Record.
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