According to Sports Illustrated, "Nearly 600 men born in the Dominican Republic have played in the major leagues since the 1950's." Baseball is big in the D.R. and this league is no joke. The rosters are filled with Major League players hoping to make it big and a few honing their skills to make the cut. The stadium itself wasn't anything special but as soon as you go inside the spirit of the D.R. shows up like crazy. In the stands, fans dressed in Red or Blue more shout than cheer for their teams. They have noisemakers, beer, rum, empanadas and fried chicken. Everyone knows the teams based on color, we watched the blue-- the Licey Tigres take on the red-- Leones del Escogido. The starting pitchers were both super-talented. If you, can believe the radar gun reading posted in the outfield, each one was hitting the high 90's pretty regularly with some nasty breaking balls. The top speed I saw was 104 miles per hour.
Of course besides the fantastic play, there were some other distractions. The between-inning entertainment spiced up the time between innings. Just like in Vermont, there were goofy games with volunteer fans, and cheerleaders that were shaking and dancing in-- definitely not like Vermont. The game ended with deafening cheers as the Leones triumphed in the 9th inning. The enthusiasm and good-natured ribbing reminded me of how much fun watching a game can be and how important it is to have these little escapes when we all know there are more important things to worry about than the Los Tigres vs. Los Leones. And perhaps, in this political climate we can remind ourselves that there is always time for a comeback.
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