It was an ordinary day. Just finished watching the Phillies first broadcast of the year from Clearwater, Florida. My friend Dale and his wife Pat left last week to travel to Florida to take in a few of the Phil's games during their vacation. Checked out the stands, but didn't see him anywhere. Should have had his cell phone number and I may have been able to locate him in the stands. I wrote yesterday about the influence that the Caribbean islands has on Major League Baseball. Quite a few of the players come from the islands with the Dominican Republic (DR) having the most with 139 players last year. Have to wait until the teams head north and make all their cuts before we can get an accurate count for this year. Anyway, I was reading about baseball in the DR and found some interesting stories about how they get started in baseball. Saw a photo of a young boy with a corrugated cardboard baseball glove. They slice the cardboard open so the children can get their hand inside the cardboard, cut the shape of a baseball glove out of the cardboard and they're ready to go. Their bats are made from the branches of the cabilma tree. Their ball is an almond pod. They don't have to have a stadium to play in, a pasture will do. The people of the DR just love baseball. This is starting to sound like my childhood neighborhood more and more. Read some more and found a story about a 76-year-old-man named Fiallo. He says that, "Baseball," as he taps his heart, "for us, it is here." Fiallo was an island baseball legend. During his prime as a second baseman in the early 50s, he was one of the DR's best players. But there was no such thing as a major-league dream. The Country's dictator, Rafael Trujillo, didn't allow baseball scouts onto the island or homegrown players to leave it. Fiallo says, "We are not like Cuba, though. There they have to play. Here, we want to play." It wasn't until 1956 when one of Fiallo's peers, Ozzie Virgil Sr. made it to the major leagues. Heck, Ozzie was so popular that they named an airport after him. Ozzie, who I remember from my younger years, played different; fun and free like my friends and I did in the parking lot behind my house on North Queen Street. Since that time more than 500 Dominicans have played in the big leagues, twice the number of any country besides the US. Then Fiallo tells another story tells of a boy named Piyoyo. Piyoyo's mother would throw rice kernels for him to hit with a broomstick at night; good for focus. Piyoyo also would put corn kernels in his mouth, spit them out one at a time and hit them with a broomstick. Wow, now that's something I should have done when I was little. Maybe still have to give that a try sometime. Or at least I should have my grandson, Caden, give it a try. In the DR there is a resort (used very loosely here) called the Golden Dolphin Villa. They have built a baseball stadium as part of the villa so that the guest can play baseball with the town's players. Boy would I have loved to had visited the Golden Dolphin when I could still swing a bat, throw a ball without pain and run without every muscle hurting. The field at the Golden Dolphin isn't exactly shaped like a baseball diamond. It's shape is more like a heart. How appropriate for a country who loves baseball as much as I do. Following are a few photos I found that show the passion that the people in the DR have for the sport of baseball which is known as "America's Sport." It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
Baseball is everywhere on the island. This little boy is using a palm branch as a bat and almond pods as balls.
Fellow from my story, Piyoyo, age 17 uses creative techniques to improve his swing. His mother, a former softball player, taught him how to hit.
Teenagers practice baseball up to eight hours a day. By the age of 18 they are considered "old" as a pro prospect.
This is the stadium that was built alongside the Golden Dolphin Villa. Players from the village of Cabrera play for, or with, guests of the villa. The villa and ballfield were bult in 2000.
Dominicans use the most plentiful resources to satisfy their passion for baseball. Here, a cabilma tree branch from the jungle is being shaved into a baseball bat.
Players who make it to the major Leagues often return in the off-season to play in the Dominican leagues. The stadiums like this one in Santiago are much smaller, but still have the excitement of a Major League game.
Fellow from my story, Piyoyo, age 17 uses creative techniques to improve his swing. His mother, a former softball player, taught him how to hit.
Teenagers practice baseball up to eight hours a day. By the age of 18 they are considered "old" as a pro prospect.
This is the stadium that was built alongside the Golden Dolphin Villa. Players from the village of Cabrera play for, or with, guests of the villa. The villa and ballfield were bult in 2000.
Dominicans use the most plentiful resources to satisfy their passion for baseball. Here, a cabilma tree branch from the jungle is being shaved into a baseball bat.
Players who make it to the major Leagues often return in the off-season to play in the Dominican leagues. The stadiums like this one in Santiago are much smaller, but still have the excitement of a Major League game.
When we went on our island tour in the DR, we saw kids (all ages) playing baseball everywhere. They'll play wherever they can find an open field...cow piles make sliding home easy! ☺ The DR is the country with the most baseball players in the major leagues....and baseball players are DR's biggest "export". They sure do love their baseball. JS
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