2008 Caribbean Baseball Series:
Santiago, home of the Aguilas Cibaenas 2007 Caribbean Series Champions, will play host to the 50th year anniversary of the Caribbean Baseball Series. The series takes place February 2nd - 8th, 2008. The winning teams from Puerto Rico, Mexico and Venezuela will be competing for the Caribbean title. In addition to the ball games, there is live music and entertainment scheduled.

Baseball In San Pedro de Macoris

Even in the poorest rural villages throughout the Dominican Republic, boys are swinging bats in well-tended baseball fields. They move with an athletic grace and throw without fear. They play barefoot sometimes, and swing with the entire body in one fluid poetic arc. Their hitting is legendary; their fielding, divined from higher powers.

Baseball is the national sport of the Dominican Republic. In every morning café in the country, heated discussion of the previous evening’s major league game in Boston, Chicago or New York revolves around the Dominican players. For men both young and old, their pride is limitless. No one knows for sure why Dominicans were born to play baseball. Some say it’s because of the emigration of laborers from all over the West Indies who came to work the Dominican sugar fields centuries ago. History documents that American sugar mill and plantation owners introduced the game and encouraged their workers to play.

One thing’s without question: The coastal town of San Pedro de Macorís is the undisputed Caribbean cradle of baseball players who make it to las ligas mayores (the major leagues) in the United States. The list of baseball players who rose through the ranks in the dozens of fields spread around this bustling industrial seaport city reads like a modern-day Who’s Who of Latin superstars: Sammy Sosa, Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez, Joaquin Andujar, Tony Peña, Jose Rijo, Felipe Alou, Tony Hernandez, Manny Mota and many others made The Dream come true.

Today, literally thousands of kids play these same fields, hoping for a shot at the big leagues. (More than a few of them sporting Chicago Cub hats mimic Sosa’s trademark double-heart pump and two-finger kiss down pat.) They play for the love of the game, which is why professional baseball scouts from the United States come here in droves. The Dodgers, Giants, Expos, Pirates and other teams maintain year-round training camps in hopes of discovering the next teenager with a 90-mile-an-hour fastball.

And what of the Dominican superstars who’ve made millions of dollars in the States? Many haven’t forgotten their roots where four-year-old kids still fall down after taking mighty swaks at milk cartons with an oversized stick. Sammy Sosa owns a commercial office plaza in downtown San Pedro, not far from where he once shined shoes. He also sent planeloads of food and supplies after Hurricane Georges. Other players include the great Hall-of-Famer Juan Marichal, who’s now the Dominican Republic’s director of sports. And, Jose Rijo is busy building a baseball academy for Dominican youngsters.

Read unbiased opinions about Dominican Republic activities at TripAdvisor.

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