After talking to some locals about the history of baseball here in Luperon, we asked a group of kids on the street if they played baseball. "Of course we do, let's go now!" We followed them down the road as they listed off the names of their favorite US teams and Dominican athletes. We stopped by a couple of houses to pick up a pitcher and second baseman. Finally, we arrived at the town "play" as it's called (baseball diamond), found an improvised wooden "bate" (bat), and started pitching the well-worn rubber ball. There were no gloves and the bases were drawn in the rough dirt of the infield, but the essence was the same. We played until it was too dark to see the ball and the mosquitoes were eating us alive.
They say that Baseball was brought to the D.R. by Cuban immigrants in the late 1800s. Since then it has become an integral part of Dominican culture and is undeniably the national pastime. Vendors sell movies about baseball on street corners and the symbols of US major league teams are stenciled on the sides of banks.
In fact, every team in Major League Baseball has representation and talent scouts here in the D.R., and with good reason. Twenty-five percent of big league baseball players are from Hispanic countries, and about three-fourths of these players come from the Dominican Republic. They include such stars as Manny Ramirez, David 'Big Papi' Ortiz, Pedro Martinez, and Albert Pujols. Many of the kids we played with aspire to be the next big league star and town celebrity.
We learned that Beisbol is as Dominican as Baseball is American.
SWC
