In this article, we look at how to watch the World Series in Central America, and when each game starts this year.
The World Series starts on Friday, and this one is interesting, even if you don’t usually follow baseball. The Tampa Bay Rays play the Milwaukee Brewers, and neither team has ever won it, meaning one of them will be champions for the first time in their history by the end of the month. Milwaukee haven’t been this far in over 40 years while Tampa Bay have been twice and lost both. They’re also two of the lowest-spending teams in the sport.
Unlike watching other sporting events from Central America, the World Series is easy to find and the games start at a convenient time.
Where to Watch
ESPN has the World Series across all seven Central American countries. That’s straight from MLB’s own broadcaster list, which names Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama directly, and covers Belize through its Caribbean listing.
So if your cable package includes ESPN, you’re set, and it’s on the main ESPN channel rather than one of the numbered ones. If you’d rather stream, Disney+ carries the same games through its ESPN section.
Three countries also get it free to air, which is worth knowing if you don’t have cable. TCS has it in El Salvador, Canal 4 in Nicaragua, and both RPC and TVMAX in Panama. No coincidence that two of those are the countries where baseball is the national sport and the other, El Salvador, has a huge number of people who have moved back home from the States.
You may also find the games on Fox+, which is where they turned up in Costa Rican listings. Worth a caveat though: MLB lists Fox as a rights holder for Mexico rather than Central America, so what you’re seeing is the Mexican feed carrying through. It’ll probably work, but ESPN is the one to rely on.
There’s also MLB.TV, which sells a postseason package for around $30 and carries every game. It’s hard to recommend when ESPN has the same games at no extra cost, though it does let you switch to English audio, which the Spanish-language ESPN feed obviously doesn’t. Worth noting that’s the radio commentary rather than the American television call.
The Schedule
Every game starts at 6:00 PM in Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, and 7:00 PM in Panama. Milwaukee host the first two, then it moves to Tampa for three, and back to Milwaukee if it goes the distance.
Game 1: Friday, October 23
Game 2: Saturday, October 24
Game 3: Monday, October 26
Game 4: Tuesday, October 27
Game 5: Wednesday, October 28, if needed
Game 6: Friday, October 30, if needed
Game 7: Saturday, October 31, if needed
Sunday the 25th and Thursday the 29th are travel days, so there’s no baseball.
One thing worth knowing if you’re scanning a cable guide for it: the listings don’t always say World Series. ESPN labels it properly, but on Fox+ it comes up as Game 1 MLB with a Previa MLB beforehand, and the start times in those listings were an hour out when we looked.
The Central American Angle
Baseball is the national sport in both Nicaragua and Panama. Both countries have professional leagues, both send players to the majors, and Nicaragua’s own season starts in November, so there’ll be local baseball running alongside the World Series.
Neither country has a player in this World Series but both came close.
José Caballero is Panamanian, and until July last year he was a Tampa Bay Ray. The trade that moved him to the Yankees happened mid-game, during a Rays-Yankees fixture at Yankee Stadium. He hugged his teammates goodbye in the eighth inning, cleared his locker in the visitors’ clubhouse, walked to the other side of the stadium, and gave his postgame interview in a Yankees shirt. This month, the Rays knocked the Yankees out of the playoffs on their way to the World Series.
Carlos Rodríguez is Nicaraguan, from Rivas, and he pitched for the Brewers across three seasons. He started Nicaragua’s first ever World Baseball Classic game back in 2023 and pitched for his country again this year. In August, in the roster shuffle after the trade deadline, Milwaukee signed three pitchers and Rodríguez lost his place. Ten weeks later the Brewers are in their first World Series since 1982.
There’s one man from the region who made it, though. Guillermo Martínez, from Managua, is the Brewers’ hitting coach, in his first season with the club after joining in December. He’s been around the majors a while, with several seasons as Toronto’s hitting coach before a year in the Cubs organization. If Milwaukee win this thing, a Nicaraguan gets a ring.
Watching the World Series Out and About
If you’d rather not sit at home, the World Series is a good night out for baseball fans. The 6: start helps, and the series runs over two weekends.
Expat bars in all the popular tourist areas and capital cities will have it on, and it’s worth checking our Super Bowl bar guide for ideas if you’re new down here and stuck. Pretty much all the places listed there will have it on at least on TV or will put it on if you ask. In Panama and Nicaragua you won’t even need an expat or tourist bar, since it’s on free-to-air television in both countries and plenty of places will have it on regardless.
