A Dominican Baseball Game

As we prepared to land in Santo Domingo, I couldn't help but to look down from my airplane window and notice the abundance of baseball diamonds dotting the landscape. They seemed to be everywhere! Not the kind with lush, manicured outfields, but the kind with dirt and no bleachers, surrounded either by jungle or sugar cane fields. 

The national sport of the Dominican Republic is baseball. They have produced many stars to the Major Leagues such as Sammy Sosa and Albert Pujols. As I observed I became nostalgic. It reminded me of how baseball was in the United States fifty years ago. Kids playing in the streets and vacant lots. They didn't have the fancy equipment, the travel teams—or even cleats—like we have now, but they loved the sport. 

Watching a Little League baseball practice in Bayahibe, Dominican Republic.

If you look closely beyond the field you can see the Caribbean Sea.

At one of our beach towns on the southern coast we passed a ball field with Little League-aged kids having practice. The road near the field had sea shells embedded in the road base. There was a small set of bleachers and dugouts, but no outfield fence. If you looked through the trees you could see the blue of the Caribbean Sea. 

We paused for fifteen minutes and with pleasure watched the boys as they took batting practice. Many of the players did very well, showing off their skill, but with others it was obvious they weren't so good. There was a mixture of all kinds. 

As we watched, a father showed up on a moped with his two sons. They jumped off and joined the team. Off to the side a couple of boys played catch and were embarrassed when they missed a ball and I had to fetch it for them. If only they knew how much I wanted to jump in and join them! 

Looking into the dugout of the Leones del Escogido.

As part of our adventure we planned on watching a professional game in Santo Domingo. Yes, I said professional. Until doing research for this trip I had no idea that the Domincan Republic had their own professional baseball league. There are six teams, two of them located in the nation's capital. The winner of the league plays in the Caribbean Series, which includes teams from Cuba, Panama, Columbia, Venezuela and Mexico. 

Our day came to watch the game and we hired a taxi driver to take us to Quisqueya Stadium, far away from the historical Colonial Zone of Santo Domingo. The process to buy tickets wasn't hard at all as we were met by scalpers from the second we left the taxi. 

But after we had bought the tickets and the taxi driver was long gone, we faced our next big obstacle. While walking through security to enter the stadium, they asked for our vaccination cards. What!!?? Of course, we had them, but we left them back at our hotel. It hadn't crossed our minds that we would need them. After a gesture of shock and disbelief, and a true sob-story that our cards were at our hotel, the ticket lady let us in. Hallelujah! 

Man selling concessions.

Quisqueya Stadium is about the size of many Minor League coliseums, having a capacity of just over 14,000 people. It is home for two ball clubs. Tonight we would watch one of them, the Leones del Escogido. 

We found our seats behind home-plate, but up higher in the grandstand. It was a vibrant crowd. There was a lot of enthusiasm and even a band. People waved red flags in the air and drank plenty of the national beer, El Presidente (some of which was spilled on my back by the guy sitting behind us). 

The windup and pitch.

Enjoying ourselves at the ballgame.

While waiting for the game to start I left Jenelle with our seats and walked down to buy a pizza for 900 pesos. While I waited the Dominican national anthem began to play and everyone stopped where they were to pay respect. 

Although the seats were only half-filled, the electricity felt like there were 60,000 people. The crowd, you could tell, loved their sport. Stormy clouds rolled overhead, but didn't drop a single bead of rain. Sunset came and went, and big dome lights turned on. 

Photos on the wall of former players for Escogido.

Photo of Felipe Alou and Juan Marichal, both from the Dominican Republic.

Between innings I went back into the halls of the stadium and glanced at the pictures on the wall. I found portraits of Felipe Alou, Juan Marichal, Junior Naboa, Sammy Sosa and more. All of them played for Escogido at one time in their careers. 

Juan Marichal was nicknamed the Dominican Dandy and was the first from the country to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. As a child he lived on a farm on the northern coast where he took care of the horses, goats and donkeys. He loved to swim and fish. One day while swimming near the river he fell unconscious and remained in a coma for nine days. The doctor ordered a steam bath which eventually helped him wake up. 

He eventually learned how to play baseball from his older brother. In the early days they would find golf balls and pay a shoemaker one peso to sew cloth around it thick enough to use as a baseball. They used tree branches for bats and canvas tarps for mitts. Some of his playmates were the Alou brothers, who would also go on to play in the Major Leagues. 

Remember, as he played as a kid, there were no Dominicans playing professional ball. In fact, Juan was only the second, behind Ozzie Virgil. But that was his aspiration. I don't know anything about his playing with Escogido, but I know he did because I saw the pictures on the wall, wearing the uniform. Juan went on to pitch for the San Francisco Giants, becoming one of the most successful players of his day. 

Seventh inning stretch.

This must be the mascot, but it doesn't look like a lion!

During the seventh inning stretch, everyone stood and sang their version of Take Me Out to the Ballgame. By the end of nine innings, Escogido had won Los Toros del Este by a score of 3 to 1. 

Before we left the stadium I had one last thing I had to do—buy a souvenir. In the gift shop I found an array of expensive merchandise, most in the form of clothing. I noted that many of the jerseys had “Pujols” printed on the back. 

“Did Albert Pujols play for Escogido?” I asked one of the men there. He was quick to point out that yes, he did, and he was even coming to play during the off-season as soon as the regular season was over. (The Dominicans have their season during the winter.) 

I was excited to hear that and it was enough to persuade me to buy a t-shirt with the Escogidos logo on front and Pujols on the back. Even though biographical writers in the U.S. are reluctant to mention the teams Dominican players played for in their home country, it is obvious that locals will know, and are very proud. 

And one other interesting tidbit I learned about Albert Pujols, the Santo Domingo native: when he was young he used limes for baseballs and milk cartons for gloves. ♠ 

Quisqueya Stadium in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.