*In the past it was thought that the town of San Pedro de Macoris produced most of the Dominican Major League baseball players (ie, Sammy Sosa, Tony Fernandez). Now this as changed because of the baseball academies that are found all around the country. As of 2006 the entire country of Dominican Republic can claim many towns as producing some of the baseball greats. The towns with the numbers of players are as follows: Santo Domingo - 94. San Pedro de Macoris - 69. San Cristobal/San Francisco de Macoris - 8, Puerto Plata - 8, Maria Trinidad Sanchez/Nagua - 8, Sanchez Ramirez/Cotui - 8, La Romana - 8, La Vega - 7, Azua - 5, Barahona - 5, El Seibo - 5, Monsenor Nouel/Bonao - 4, Espaillat - 3, Dajabon - 2, Elias Pina - 2, Hato Mayor - 2, and Salcedo - 1. (Diario Libre)

*grand slam - grand slam, jonrón con las bases llenas

*ground ball - arrastrada, rola, rolata

*home plate - jom, plato

*home run - cuadrangular, jonrón

*infielder - jugador del cuadro

*inning - capítulo, epsiodio, inin

*knuckleball - bola de nudillos

*left fielder - jardinero izquierdo

*left field - jardín izquierdo, bosque izquierdo

*locker room - cuarto de vestirse

*lose - perder

*misplay - pifiar

*mitt - trocha

*mound - montículo

*out - áo; áut, out

*outfielder - guardabosque, jardinero, fil

*outfield - bosque, cuadro exterior, jardín

*pitch - disparo, envio

*pitcher - lanzador, monticular, pícher, serpentinero

*pitcher's mound - montículo

*play - pleres

*play ball! - ¡Ple Bol!

*pop fly - bola elevada, bombo

*rain delay - postergación por lluvia

*replay - repetir

*right field - jardín derecho, bosque derecho

*right fielder - jardinero derecho, guardabosque derecho

*rolling - rolin

*run - anotación, carrera, rayita

*run-batted in - carrera impulsada, carrera remolcada, empujada

*safe - cierto, quieto, sei; seif

*score -r esultado, tanteo (to score - anotar; cruzar el plato)

*scoreboard - pizarra de anotaciones, marcador, pizarrón, tanteador

*season tickets - abonos de temporada

*second base - la intermedia, segunda base

*second baseman - intermedista, camarero, defensor del segundo saco

*slide - arrastrarse, barrerse, deslizarse, tirarse

*slump - eslom

*southpaw/lefty - zurdo, brazo corvo, brazo siniestro, brazo equivocado

*spikes - ganchos

*spitball - bola ensalivada

*steal - base robada;

*strike - estraíc, estray

*strikeout - ponche

*third baseman - antesalista, defensor del tercer saco

*throw - disparo, lanzamiento, tiro

*triple play - tripleplei, triple jugada, triple matanza

*umpire - árbitro, juez de campo

Some Baseball translations from English to Spanish - Learn a little bit of Spanish so you can fit in when you go to your next game in Dominican Republic (of if you sit next to some Dominicanos at a game in USA). You can impress them a little with your knowledge. It is funny to note that many of the words are the same in English and just pronounced with a Spanish accent. Lets Ple Bol!

For a complete listing of Spanish to English and English to Spanish baseball terms in PDF form.

To learn how to use more Dominicanismos check out the language section

This is a video taken from Television of the Himno Nacional being sung at the beginning of the second game of the final series between AGUILAS and LICEY. It shows many of the players while you can listen to the National Anthem of Dominican Republic (2007)

Diamonds Rough 
(article written Sunday, February 13, 2005.  Printed with permission by the writer Mark Saxon) Gracias Mark! 
     A 15-year-old boy is sitting on a rusting oil drum 50 feet from the left-field wall of Quisqueya Stadium, this nation's steel-and-concrete shrine to its national pastime.
     Nelson Felix de Leon is watching two older boys play catch in a weedy lot. Atop the high wall, other children have scrambled up to watch famous major leaguers and fringe prospects take infield practice far down the first-base line. De Leon watches, but he doesn't participate. "I don't have a glove, and I don't have cleats," de Leon explains. "And besides, I have to help my mother." The woman is nearby, frying up starchy snacks at her roadside cart for fans of Licey and Escogido to grab,dropping a few pesos in her palm on their way to the game.
     
Most Dominican boys aren't so easily deterred. Young boys here are crafty, searching out ways to play baseball with scant equipment. Miguel Colon, 62, the father of Angels pitcher Bartolo Colon, remembers playing with a wadded up cloth for a ball. Then there's the classic Dominican cliche: kids using milk cartons for gloves. Driving through this sprawling city, or through the green, leafy countryside, it's a common sight: small groups of boys swinging a bat, scooping a grounder or heaving a ball. They're playing on a side street while dodging traffic. And in the clearing of a sugar cane field. And on the beach.

This was America 50 years ago, when baseball still reigned as king of the sports. But subtract the wealth and add a dose of Latin American effervescence. When U.S. troops occupied the country in 1916, baseball emerged as a symbol of national defiance. The Dominicans would challenge the soldiers to baseball games. The locals often won.
That was a long time ago. By now, this country of 10 million people, which shares the Caribbean's second-largest island with Haiti, has become the foreign source for cheap marquee talent. According to the Baseball Encyclopedia, 385 men who have played in the major leagues were born in the Dominican Republic, twice the number from the next-largest foreign source, Venezuela. About 100 Dominicans open a typical season on major-league rosters, 10 percent to 13 percent of all players.Two winters ago, the Angels made a bold stab at another World Series title by signing three of the biggest Dominican stars: Colon, outfielder Jose Guillen and the man who would bring home American League Most Valuable Player honors 11 months later, Vladimir Guerrero.

"Kids over there play baseball from the time they can walk," said Angels general manager Bill Stoneman, whose team opens spring training Wednesday. "They play barefoot, they play scantily clad, they play with things you wouldn't call a baseball. But they're playing baseball a lot more than American or Canadian kids. So it would make sense that a lot more of them are signing pro contracts."

Those are the elite few lucky enough to live a dream. Major League Baseball says 90 percent to 95 percent of Dominican boys who sign to play pro ball never make the majors. Some of those who wash out can look forward to a future cutting sugar cane and making about $150 a month. Others will drive town cars in New York or scrub dishes in Miami.  The guidebooks will tell you the Dominican Republic is a "land of contrasts," and the schisms are, indeed, everywhere: New York Mets pitcher Pedro Martinez's yellow Ferrari rolling over potholed streets past starving beggars; shoeless peasants working in the fields near sprawling estates owned by rum barons; young rural women forced by poverty to sell their bodies in the marble-floored luxury hotels where foreign men come to take advantage of them. But it's also a land flowing with energy, color and joy. How else to explain why so many millionaire baseball players return winter after winter – and after they retire – to live among their people? They could live anywhere and they choose to live on an island where 60 percent of the population lives in grinding poverty.

THE CHOSEN FEW     One warm evening in December, two of the past three American League MVPs were within a 15-minute drive of each other. Both powerful men happened to be sitting around a table playing dominoes with their families. In Nizao, a coastal hamlet 35 miles west of Santo Domingo, the Angels' Guerrero – 2004 MVP – was gathered with a dozen young men, mostly brothers and cousins. A jostling five-mile trip up the road, 2002 MVP Miguel Tejada was sitting around a table with his two brothers, his father, his cousins and a few friends.Tejada had on a black No. 23 Michael Jordan jersey and a matching No. 23 cap. Two of the men in the room had shotguns propped between their legs. Players can't rely on police for protection, so they hire bodyguards   or arm their entourages. Here, the wealthy must protect their assets from the desperately poor. A security guard also sat in front of Tejada's father's house with a semiautomatic weapon. "Don't worry. This is just in case someone tries to do something," Tejada said. "Some of the people in my country are no good."

Guns are everywhere in the country. At Guerrero's house, one of his brothers had a pistol sitting in his lap while a group played dominoes. Fitzgerald Astacio – who works with the agents representing Guerrero, Tejada and Martinez – tucks a nickel- plated .45 magnum under the seat of his black Lexus sport utility vehicle as he heads to the airport to pick up Martinez. Many drivers carry weapons in Santo Domingo.
     Statistics show that the Dominican Republic – while far from dirt-poor by Latin American standards – has among the least-equitable distribution of resources in the Western Hemisphere. Baseball players are aware that they become targets when they return to their countries, a point hammered home when thugs kidnapped the mother of Detroit Tigers pitcher Ugueth Urbina in Venezuela last September. The woman remains captive, with the kidnappers reportedly demanding $3 million.

On this night near the Dominican's southeastern shoreline, however, peace reigned. Tejada, the Baltimore Orioles' powerful shortstop, was slowly sipping a mix of scotch and an energy drink. He shared with two foreign visitors. Oddly, it went down easy with a couple of cubes of ice and a plate full of spaghetti, spicy marinara sauce and grilled red onions. A young woman in the kitchen, the companion of Tejada's elderly father, was dishing it up for the men playing dominoes. "Dominican food," Tejada said.

After a Dominican player strikes gold in the major leagues, he typically builds a small fiefdom in his hometown. If the player is generous, he becomes the local charity. Guerrero and Tejada tote back home bags stuffed with balls, bats and clothes each fall. Tejada and Bartolo Colon are building stadiums for their hometowns. According to some experts, players pump far too much money into baseball facilities and not enough into helping build up the country's faltering education system
.   Tejada's stadium was due to open soon, and he was planning an all-star softball game. This night, Dec. 16, he was sending out invitations to most of the island's best players. The Boston Red Sox's David Ortiz and several others had already said they would be there. "They'll all be there, because it's Tejada," said Virgilio Rojo, a Dominican baseball official. "Everybody likes Miguel." Tejada, Colon and Guerrero are among the most popular major leaguers here. Dominicans say they are sencillo, simple, meaning that success hasn't made them forget their roots.

A NARROW PIPELINE       Dominican talent continues to power the major leagues, even as teams seek new sources of cheap young players in nearby countries such as Venezuela, Mexico, Cuba and Panama. On the Angels' 2004 division title team, the best player, Guerrero, the best starting pitcher, Colon, and the No. 2 run producer, Guillen, all came from this island. So did spot starter Ramon Ortiz and several of the club's top prospects. Most teams mine the island's talent with shiny academies that dot the southern coast. The Angels' is in San Pedro de Macoris. The Dodgers were one of the first to tap this lode with their academy in Campo Las Palmas, near Santo Domingo. With all the scouts about, boys here grab at mirages, hoping they can be the next Sammy Sosa, Tejada or Guerrero. That mentality can be a dangerous trap, according to some who study breakdowns in the Dominican education system.

"Sometimes you wish there was more than just baseball here," said New York Mets general manager Omar Minaya, the game's first Dominican general manager.

Harvard public-policy professor Robert Jensen conducted a study financed by Dominican President Leonel Fernandez a few years ago. He found that baseball isn't just a pipe dream here, it's a dangerous illusion. While the Dominican Republic is essentially a middle-class country by Latin American standards, it has a terrible record of keeping kids in school. About 29 percent of Dominican children reach high school, according to the United Nations. Jensen and his colleagues interviewed thousands of Dominican children to find out why so many of them drop out. One in four boys said he wanted to be a baseball player.

"Baseball is just ruining these kids' lives," Jensen said. "It's the classic thing. They say, 'Look, if I stay home and do my homework, I'm not out there practicing baseball.' They see these baseball guys making so much money. It's like the U.S. The people who spend the most on lottery tickets are the poorest."

For kids who drop out of school intent on playing professional baseball, a more likely fate is the sugar-cane fields and a future built on $10 a day.

Where dreams are all people have, they die hard.

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+click to enlarge - Sami Sosa Ball Park in the town of Enciendo Consuelo

*Latino players make up 23% of Major League rosters (2012). Puerto Ricans are not included in the Latin count as they are USA citizens.

*Did you know that X President and Dictator of Dominican Republic, Rafael Trujillo, was a baseball fan? Heres a little tib-bit on what he did to promote baseball (and himself).

*Have you ever heard about the VooDoo curse ace pitcher Pedro Borbon put on the Cincinnati Red's? Check it out in the superstitions page

*Dominican Republic has won the most Caribbean Series championships than any other country in the 50 year history of the series.Dominican Republic 19 times, Puerto Rico 14, Cuba 7, Venezuela 6, Mexico 6, Panama 1.

*Caribbean Series 2008 Tigres del Licey beat their local foes, the Aguilas Cibaenas (there were 2 Dominican teams as Puerto Rico could not play this year) and won their 10th championship. The score was 8 to 2 (the widest margin in the history of the series). This makes it the 17th Serie del Caribe Championship that Dominican Republic has won.

*Caribbean Series 2007 Aguilias won the series! The longest baseball game in the Caribbean Baseball Series had 18 innings. The game was 6 hours and 13 minutes long. Played at the Roberto Clemente stadium in Puerto Rico February 2, 2007. The Aguilas Cibaeñas of Dominican Republic won 4 to 3 over the Tigres de Aragua of Venezuela.

*The Caribbean Series 2006 Tigres de Licey came in second place to Venezuela. They were in the lead until the 9th. This is the second year in a row Dominican Republic ended up in second place.

Buy your Dominican Republic Cigars and all your smoking supplies. Get reviews and all the information you ever needed about cigars.

+click to enlarge - A Little League Baseball game being played at Estadio Olympico

Dominican Republic is a top destination! View 1000's of hotel deals at HotelsCombined.com!

A game in progress at Estadio Quisqueya, Santo Domingo

Some useful links to Dominican and Latin American Baseball web site. *

*Dominican Summer League

*Liga de Béisbol Profesional de República Dominicana (LIDOM) (Professional Baseball in Dominican Republic)

*Latino Baseball.com

Buy a Dominican Republic Baseball T-shirt, Jersey or Hat? How about a book or two about Baseball Dominican style. You can find these and more items here at Amazon.com

+click to enlarge - A game at Estadio Quisqueya, Santo Domingo

+click to enlarge - A game in progress at Estadio Quisqueya, Santo Domingo