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Today is my last full day here until February. The Red Sox came in to play a game and a very good game it was. The Yanks pulled it out in the eighth inning. Trailing 1-0 they loaded the bases on a hit, a walk, and a surprise bunt single by one of the large guys. I think he was trying to sacrifice, but the bunt was perfectly placed. There was an easy pop fly out, and the next batter then hit what looked like a sure-fire inning-ending double play grounder, but the throw from the second baseman to first was high and got by the first baseman, allowing two runners to score. Final score was 2-1.
So, I’m off to Santo Domingo tomorrow, where I’ll be staying at the same place I stayed when I first got here back in September, the Apart-Hotel Atalaya. I’ll try to catch a ride with one of the coaches after the game tomorrow. More later.
Yup, today finds another number added to my “official” age, but it’s only a number (what number?–nunayer business). I’m not doing any celebrating; I haven’t partied it up for my birthday in many years. I did receive birthday greetings from Nai in Laos as he was sipping on a cold Beer Lao in my honor. I also heard from my brother and others. Thanks to all who remembered.
Well, the campus is starting to clear out. There is only one team now, instead of two. 12-15 very excited Venezuelans and the two Mexicans left for their homes this past Saturday, along with the one Cuban fellow, who went to Florida. This Friday everyone will leave. There are a few Panamanians who will be flying back to Central America and the rest are Dominicans from around the country. I’ll be moving back to Santo Domingo, working there with UASD until Feb. 1, when the campus reopens and the players, some old, some new, return.
Well, for the next couple of months, then, I probably won’t have any more new sunrise/sunset pics, so I’ll leave you with this impressionistic view of a recent sunrise. More later.
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, those of you who celebrate it. Now, go out and spend all your money shopping! Well, we didn’t have turkey yesterday; we had the usual beans and rice with pork chops for lunch, a twice weekly (at least) fare. In fact, we had rice and leftover meat from the pork chops for dinner last night, too. I must confess that I don’t miss a whole lot about living in the U.S., but I do miss turkey dinner on Thanksgiving or Christmas.
Next week the complex closes and I move back into Santo Domingo Dec. 1st or 2nd for about 6 weeks. I’ll be working with UASD there, as I’ve posted before. It’ll be fun to be back in SD, but after a few weeks I’m sure I’ll miss the tranquility of the Yankee campus. I have a ton of ideas for teaching English to the players when I return from Feb. to July, so I’ll be working on those while I’m in the big city. I’ll have plenty to do to keep me busy.
I see that Montana is bracing for a very cold Arctic front moving in next week, when temperatures will get below zero. You know, I was really feeling the cold here the other night and even had to wear long pants the following morning. I swear it must have got down into the high 60s. 
I revamped the Photo Gallery a bit, rearranging the order of the categories to make recent photos easier to find, I hope. Give it a look-see. More later.
Yes, Reggie was here and has gone. I got to meet him, shake hands, talk a little. He seems like a nice guy, and he spent a lot of time with the players. We had a barbecue Monday, but heavy rains washed out the games on that day and Tuesday. Reggie was supposed to be here on Tuesday, the day I promised myself that I would get an autographed ball and a photo with him, but the rain seemed to have kept him away and he never showed up. Oh, well, perhaps someday . . . Anyway, here’s a photo of Reggie with a couple of the Venezuelan guys, Jean Paul Conde on the left and Andres Varilla.
Like I stated, we had some pretty heavy rains the beginning of the week and the fields are just now drying out. The teams should be playing today, vs. the Rockies and the Dodgers. However, the roster sizes are going to be reduced this weekend. All the Venezuelan coaches and players, about 15 total, are being sent home on Saturday. Abel wants to get them safely to Venezuela before their national elections on Dec. 2 or 3. A lot of people, Venezuelans included, are worried about civil unrest, violence, airport closures, etc. in the aftermath of election day there, so having the players and coaches safely in their homes before then seems to be the best policy. Most of the guys I’ve talked to here are firmly against Chavez and they say he is ruining the country. They don’t think he will “legally” win a new term, but they do think that he won’t give up power. Let’s hope there’s no violence.
Since I’ve been getting up earlier than usual to go jogging, I’ve also been able to get some nice sunrise photos. Here’s another. It’s Thanksgiving Day in the States, so happy holiday to everyone!
I just added some new galleries to the Photo Gallery section of the website–Dominican Republic and Yankees. Gotta go–Reggie just arrived!
So, what’s new in Yankeeland, you ask? Robinson Cano, another Yankee superstar, is here. (See photo below) In fact, he and Melky Cabrera are working out with the team and DHing in games, tuning up to play in the high-caliber Dominican Winter League. I watched Cano yesterday, and you can tell by the sound of the crack of the bat against the ball that this guy is a world-class player. He went 1-3 with a very hard line-drive single yesterday, and the day before he smashed a homerun, though I missed seeing it. Many Dominican major leaguers play in the winter league, and The Lonely Planet guide book describes watching games in Santo Domingo:
“Steaming barbecue chicken, free-flowing rum, marimba breaks and bets shouted out at breakneck speed; watching a baseball game in Santo Domingo’s Quisqueya Stadium is more than just a day at the park, it’s an event reminiscent of a raging party, an off-track betting office and the World Series combined. It is one of the best places in the world to watch a baseball game.”
I definitely plan to take in a game or two after I move back into SD in a few weeks. I’ll be there until the camp reopens near the end of January. Meanwhile, I’ll be doing some teacher training at the Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo
(UASD), the oldest university in the Western Hemisphere.
On Wednesday, during the coaches vs. scouts game, I had a visit from the Public Affairs Officer, Bill Millman, at the U.S. Embassy in SD, who was showing around two ladies from the State Dept. in Washington, D.C. Both Liz and Mary Dean were instrumental in getting this pilot program of teaching with the Yankees off the ground and were very interested in what I was doing so far. They offered suggestions and support and toured the facilities here. They had been interested in observing one of my classes, but we gave the players the day off so that they could watch the coach/scout game.
One more ex-Yankee superstar is supposed to be in camp today. Reggie Jackson will be here over the weekend to give the players a pep talk. I’ll certainly try to meet him and to get a photo or two. More later.
Robbie Cano steps in to take a few swings
Here are some richly-colored clouds lit by the setting sun.
I made another run into Santo Domingo yesterday to see about getting my work visa, and it looks like everything is finally in place to do that. I handed in all the appropriate paperwork (and there is a lot of it) and was told to call the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 10 days to see if it’s ready to pick up. I found out, though, that overstaying your initial 15- or 30-day visa period does not result in much of a punishment. If I had done nothing about getting a work visa, I would have had to pay about $60 when I leave the country next July. Not nearly as punitive as Thailand’s $20 per day overstay fee.
I did have to do a bit of running around, however. My contact in SD, who was going to take me to a government department that would expedite the visa process, was sick in bed when I called her and then she sent me to the wrong ministry, directing me to Immigration rather than Foreign Affairs. Luckily, I was able to speak with a Dominican lady working at Immigration who spoke very good English. She gave me the information that I should go to Foreign Affairs and she also told me about the “fine” for overstaying. Also lucky was the fact that I had been to both Immig. and F.A. before; otherwise, I would have spent quite a long time looking for either place.
The Yankee campus is quite busy. Mark Newman is here, but I haven’t met him yet, and most, if not all, of the Yankee Dominican scouts have arrived for a meeting this week. Abel told me that the oft-rumored visit of RJ will probably occur after Thanksgiving. In the meantime, I got to meet Melky Cabrera, one of last season’s “Baby Bombers.” He lives in the DR, in Bani, I believe.
A few more visitors are coming on Thursday, this time from the State Department. One is from the Embassy in SD, the Public Affairs Officer, I think, and the other is the lady who heads the DR country desk in Washington, D.C. I’m going to give them a short tour of the facilities, and they are going to observe a few minutes of one of my classes. Certainly not a long visit.
I haven’t been keeping up on game results, so I can’t give you any recent scores. More later.
Well, we waited and waited for Rivera because we thought he would come during the game between the Yanks and the Diamondbacks. And the game dragged on. And on. It was a 3 1/2 hour game which saw the Yanks smash the D-backs 11-6 and featured a mammoth home run by Juan Miguel Miranda, the fellow who defected from Cuba on a raft. You’ll be hearing a lot more about him, possibly this coming season. A Dominican scout told me that he thought he’d make the Big Team this year. The guy’s a first baseman, so I don’t know where they might make room for him. Anyway, keep your eyes and ears open for this fellow. The Bombers lost their game with the Rockies, 3-0. So, the Yanks stand at 4-1 and the Bombers at 2-2. Today they play against each other, not the usual 5-inning intra-squad game, but a regularly-scheduled 9-inning affair.
So, Mariano didn’t make it, we thought. But, I walked into the cafeteria to eat a late lunch and there he was with his wife and some friends, sitting with a few of the players who had finished the game earlier, chowing down on rice, pork chops and salad. Dock, whom I mentioned in the last post, introduced me to him, so I got to say hello. Later, Victor Mata, El Jefe of the baseball teams here, the head coach, so to speak, showed him around the campus and they stopped to talk on the balcony outside my room. Mariano asked how the players were doing in the classes and I asked him how his elbow was after his late season injury (it’s fine). He graciously let me take a photo of him and Victor (see below). It was only after he left that I realized I should have asked Victor to take a photo of me and Mo together. I hardly ever think of taking my own photo, for some reason or another. If RJ visits, I’ll try to get a photo of him and me together.
Anyway, it was an eventful day, long to be remembered as the day I met Mariano Rivera, future Hall of Famer and All-Time Yankee Great!
Mariano on the left, with Victor Mata
Tuesday, the Yanks beat the Cubs on the road 3-2, but the Bombers fell to the Red Sox here, 6-4. This game was punctuated by a near tragedy to one of the NY players. Jhodiel Santamaria, playing left field, tried to make a spectacular catch of a ball hit to deep left by one of the Red Sox players. It looked like he made the catch, fell to the ground and held up the ball in one hand to indicate he caught it. He didn’t get back up. He lay on the ground for 15 minutes while the trainers tried to ascertain the extent of his injury. Finally, they carried him off in one of the maintenance vehicles on a makeshift stretcher. He was taken to the hospital in Santo Domingo and it was feared that he broke his back. Thankfully, however, it turned out to be a bad bruise and he is back in camp, though he won’t be playing for a while. By the way, the ump ruled that it was no catch and the Red Sox player scampered around the bases for an inside-the-park homerun. The Yanks record is now 3-1 and the Bombers are 2-1.
Both teams were supposed to play on the road today, although I’ve forgotten against which teams. But at breakfast this morning, Dock, a visiting substance abuse counselor from Tampa, told me that the schedule had been changed. One of the teams is playing here, and . . . get ready . . . Mariano (Mo) Rivera is supposed to be here to throw out the first pitch! I was going to work on my lessons, but not now; gotta get the camera ready!
But, back to Dock. He’s about my age and from the Bronx. It shows that the Yankees care about these young players. (I’m sure the other teams have a similar program in place.) He talks about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse, AIDS and other STDs, and similar subjects to the players, many of whom have never been out of their rural settings before. So, it’s easy for them to become fascinated by the big city and its temptations.
Anyway, I hope to get some photos of Rivera and post them here. I hope he shows. Mo later.
Yesterday’s games were more like a doubleheader than anything else. The Cincy team came here to play because their field was too wet and muddy from the rains on Sunday. The fields here were perfect, attesting to Abel’s claim that they had major-league quality drainage systems. So, there were two games taking place on the two main fields–the Yanks vs. the Indians and the Bombers against the Reds. The Yanks won 2-1 behind some good pitching and the Bombers defeated the Reds 6-3 on the strength of 3 homeruns, including another one by Geraldo Rodriguez, his second in two games. That puts the Yanks record at 2-1 and the Bombers at 2-0. Today, the Red Sox travel here to play the Bombers and the Yanks go on the road against the Cubs.
There are a lot of people who come to see the games here. Most of them, I think, are friends and relatives of the players and coaches. Yesterday, there were probably close to 30 or 40 fans watching the games, and, including the players and coaches of all the teams, there were probably close to 180 people here altogether. Cool. More later.
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