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With most of the players gone, the camp was unusually quiet this past weekend–no players, office staff or coaches and only a small group of housekeepers and ground crew. Unfortunately, with few people to feed, meals were sparse until Sunday dinner, by which time the players who went home were supposed to return. I looked in on breakfast Saturday morning and, as I suspected, the Blue Plate Special was Mystery-Meat-and-Cheese Sandwiches. I passed on it and didn’t hang around for lunch. Instead, I went to my weekend office and worked on upcoming lessons.
My Weekend Office:
Yes, I did go into Santo Domingo on Friday, but, no, I wasn’t able to change phone companies. I knew of one place in a supermarket close to where my apartment was, but they don’t sell the actual SIM cards, only the recharge cards. I’ll have to go back to the Capital in a few weeks and try to find a larger shop that has the SIM card I need.
I laid off jogging on Friday because the fields were too wet from a late Thursday afternoon rain shower. So, having rested a day, I was able to break my all-time jogging record on Saturday morning–1 hour, 17 minutes. What a Marathon Man I’m becoming.  Too bad none of the remaining players in camp were up to cheer me on, but with the day off, they were all sleeping. Deadbeats. More later.
I arrived back at the baseball camp near Boca Chica on Sunday morning, and it felt great to leave all the noise, pollution and chaos of Santo Domingo behind. I dropped my bags off at my room at the camp and took my taxi, which waited for me, into Boca Chica. I had to get a haircut and buy some REAL coffee for the Mr. Coffee machine in my room. (I’d been drinking Nescafe Instant for the last 6 weeks.  Of course, I could have done these tasks in S.D., but I needed an excuse to go to the beach!
I was happy to find that the multitude of young shoe-shine boys has doubled or tripled. I don’t wear dress shoes, but they can also clean tennis shoes, so they don’t have a reason to bypass me. I’m gonna have to start wearing flip-flops when I go into B.C., since I’m sure they would insist they could clean sandals, too. They’re cute kids, 7-9 years old, but they can be quite the pests when you’re in the town. I hardly ever see them on the beach; thus, another reason to spend time there, soaking up some sun, writing lesson plans and notes for the blog.
So, it’s back to work. Basically, I goofed off while I was in S.D., except for a couple of workshops I conducted earlier, which was not a problem because I get 20 working days off. The embassy didn’t have anything for me to do; it was holiday time and the schools were out, so I looked at the time as a vacation. Some of you have indicated that I’m on perpetual vacation. (And you know who you are.) Not so! //sarcasm on// I miss the foot-deep snow and sub-freezing temperatures of Montana winters. //sarcasm off//
Below are a couple of photos. As you can see, the view from my apartment in S.D. was less than ideal for photographing sunsets.
And one from the camp just last evening.
When I woke up this morning, it was raining again, though not much, perhaps a snow factor of 1/2 inch. (I refer to a snow factor so that those of you in less fortunate climates can compare.) It stopped yesterday just in time for me to take my daily jog.  At least it was breezy and cool, since the sun remained trapped behind the clouds. Plus, no crazies with automobiles intruded into the safe zone.
I notice I haven’t posted many photos lately. That’s mainly because I haven’t taken that many and the ones I have taken aren’t all that exciting or unique. To break the monotony, here are a few I found on my small camera.
I was walking along the Malecon when I spotted these two boats nicely framed by a tree. Sorry, I’m not good with tree names, but this gnarly type is found all along the oceanfront boulevard.
Here is one of the large cruise ships which call on Santo Domingo. This is one of the Holland America Line ships. I was sitting in D’Luis Restaurant along the Malecon when this one left port.
This fisherman is either offering thanks for the daily catch or describing the size of the one that got away.
It’s about time I posted another entry, since I told a number of people I would soon write about the team’s trip a few Sundays ago to the western part of the country. It was interesting, beautiful, touching, and, at times, crazy and out of control. (Here’s a brief press release about the trip and the visit to the orphanage, which I described in the previous post.)
We left the camp around 6:30 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 18th. Making the trip were all of the players, about 60 of them, some of the Dominican and visiting American coaches, Abel Guerra, Ani Sanchez (the general manager of the baseball camp), four Americans from the USAID section of the Embassy and a busload of press people. Quite a big deal.
Our destination was a small village near San Juan de la Maguana, in the western part of the Dominican Republic, close to the Haitian border, an area that would take about 5 hours to reach.
We stopped for gas just outside of Boca Chica, which didn’t sit too well with a few people. Why didn’t the drivers gas up before the trip? Abel got a bit upset when one of the coaches on the bus carrying the players let the gang off the bus to get snacks. Getting them back on took a while and was a bit like herding cats.
We stopped in Santo Domingo to pick up a few more of the coaches, and then we were off to the hinterlands, four hours away. We passed through some very beautiful country along the way, transitioning from seaside to mountains.
Below is a photo of the mountains near our final destination, countryside that is representative of much of what we passed through.
On the way, most of the several players who rode with us on the “adult bus,” as one wag put it, slept. However, they’re real camera hams, as you can tell from this shot taken after they finished snoozing.
We finally reached San Juan and the end of our journey, I thought. Nope. We still had quite a few kilometers to go, eventually traveling to the small village of El Cercado, where the food warehouse of “Food For the Poor” (FFP) is located. FFP is a religious organization (as far as I can determine) that provides food, housing and other necessities to “the poorest of the poor,” according to their website.
From Cercado, we traveled about 20 more kilometers to the small, mountainous village whose bridge to the outside world had been washed away by the flooding caused by the torrential rains of Tropical Storm Noel. Poverty-stricken in the best of times, this isolation from the rest of the country is only increasing their hardship.
At the FFP warehouse, we had been joined by a deuce-and-a-half truck loaded with large bags of rice. The team’s job was to transfer the rice to a couple of smaller trucks waiting on the other side of the small stream where the bridge had disappeared in the flood. Here’s part of the crowd that had gathered there.
The players and coaches formed a human chain and passed the food over to the other trucks.
At the time, in my mind, I questioned why the big truck couldn’t have just brought the rice to the village, rather than going through this laborious process. Part of the reason could have to do with the publicity that was generated, but the terrain at the stream crossing was fairly steep and confining, and there was another larger river farther down the road, though it was shallow and flat. Perhaps the heavily laden deuce-and-a-half would have mired in the river bed.
At any rate, the rice was transferred and brought to the distribution point just on the far side of the larger river, where it was handed out to the villagers. That sounds a lot more tranquil than the reality of the situation. The trucks were mobbed, literally almost overrun by hungry people. There was no organized system in place for giving out the food–just lug it over the side of the trucks to the outstretched hands. A few of us commented on the process and lack of organization, but I later overheard a few of the FFP honchos saying that they had tried other methods, but nothing else had worked. So, chaos ruled. At times I feared for the safety of those in the trucks and for the numerous children milling around the area, but I didn’t notice any calamities or injuries. I can barely imagine what the scene must be like in places such as Darfur, where thousands of hungry people are camped, waiting for food. Below is one scene of the chaos.
At last, all the food was gone. Many folks were pleading for more, but there was none. I hope that family, friends and neighbors helped out those who were unfortunate enough to not have received anything. This sweet, older lady got hers, though.
We arrived at the camp about 8:30 that night after an uneventful return trip. Everyone was tired but satisfied with the effort. Let’s hope, however, that efforts like this are unnecessary in the future.
Happy Birthday to me today! More later.
It’s been a very busy week at the camp–many, if not all, of the Yankee scouts from around the region, including Venezuela, have been staying here, and, as well, many American Yankee coaches and about 8 American minor leaguers have been attending the camp.
Wednesday was a very interesting day. Many of the visiting U.S. players and a few of the Dominican guys, as well as yours truly, went into Santo Domingo to put on a clinic at an orphanage there. It was attended by a couple hundred or so happy, energetic kids. Also on hand from the Big Team were 1st base coach Tony Pena, outfielder Melky Cabrera, 2nd baseman Robby Cano, and up-and-coming pitcher Edwar Ramirez. All of them are from the D.R. The Yankees also donated $25,000 to a group called “Food For the Poor” as part of the relief effort in the wake of Tropical Storm Noel. Here’s more in a Yankee Press Release.
If you read that release, you’ll see that the club is also going to San Juan de la Managua, Ramirez’ home town, in the southwest part of the country this Sunday to assist in relief efforts. I’ll be making that trip also, a journey that we’ll be starting at 6 a.m. Not just a handful of the players at the camp are going–the whole team, some 65 or so players, along with coaches, scouts and others, will be making the trip. It should be a great time during a very worthwhile effort. Scroll down to see some photos from the Santo Domingo orphanage clinic. I’ll definitely post some from San Juan later, and I’ll also be posting more than what’s below to the Photo Gallery eventually.
Yesterday, Thursday, proved to be a big day, also. On hand were new Yankees manager Joe Girardi, his new bench coach, Rob Thomson, and future Hall of Famer, relief pitcher extraordinaire, Mariano Rivera. Alas (sigh), I failed to get any pictures of the three. Girardi gave a pep talk to the team in the morning and Rivera talked to them later in the afternoon after their game against the Florida Marlins team.
I got to meet, shake hands and talk a bit with Girardi, Thomson, and Pena, and they all had kind and encouraging words about what I’m doing with the club. Very motivating for me.
Still no sign of Brian Cashman or Felix Lopez, though I dare say they are busy with the efforts to re-sign Alex Rodriguez. It’s been reported (just one source of hundreds) that he’s going to sign a 10-year, $275 million contract with the Yanks, a fairly stunning development. I’m all for it. He’s a great player, one who will probably go down as one of the all-time greats in baseball history. I think it’s a good thing that he’ll be spending the large majority of his career with the Yankees. Besides, who else can afford that kind of money, though rumors also reported that the Mets and the Angels were interested in signing him, too.
Ok, here are the orphanage photos. Some of them are pretty large files, but if you read all of the above post, they should have loaded by now. As always, click on the caption below each photo to see a larger image.
Six future major leaguers, perhaps?
Part of the large crowd that was on hand.
Tony Pena, flanked by Melky Cabrera (left) and Edwar Ramirez, speaks to the crowd.
The presentation of the check for $25,000 to Food For the Poor.
This is one of the Yankee camp players, pitcher Ivan Nova. Yeah, the kids are short, but Nova stands about 6 feet, 4 inches. For some reason, the kids were flocking to him for his autograph. He’s a good guy who speaks decent English, and I hope he makes it to the Bigs some day. He played for the Class A Charleston, SC RiverDogs last year. I told him his nickname, if and when he gets to the Majors, will probably be Ivan the Terrible, but he said it’s going to be Super Nova.
One of the coaches gives a clinic to future Yankee pitchers.
A little fielding instruction. There were different clinics going on all over the fairly large complex–instructions on pitching, fielding, throwing, running and more.
One of the visiting American minor leaguers signs autographs.
One of the American players poses with a group of youngsters.
And, finally, Jairo Heredia, another great guy from the camp, poses with a group of kids. Last year Jairo played for the Gulf Coast League Yankees, based in Tampa.
I also forgot to mention that on Tuesday, I was interviewed by George Gedda, a former writer for the Associated Press (Google his name, and you’ll come up with a ton of articles he’s written). He’s in the process of writing a book about Dominican baseball culture and wanted to learn more about the English language teaching aspect in which I’m involved. George is staying in the D.R. until February, so the book will come out sometime after that. Look for it in bookstores everywhere.
I’m up to an hour and ten minutes in my daily jogging sessions. My ankle’s been bothering me a bit, but once I start running, the pain goes away. It seems to be stiff more than anything else. I just hope it doesn’t get more serious. It could ruin my future chances to play with the Yanks. 
More later.
The BBC reported that 20 people have died in the D.R. due to Noel, most of them east of Santo Domingo, which is our area. I haven’t been out and about, so I don’t know what the rest of the country looks like after the storm, but I imagine it must be devastating in some areas near here.
We are still getting a few intense, but brief, showers (like right now), and it appears that there are only tattered remnants of Noel still bedeviling the island. Most weather reports predict some heavy rain today and tonight, with amounts tapering off by tomorrow. Looks like the worst is over.
My mother asked if we were without power and if we had lanterns or flashlights to use. The answer is no, because we have our own standby generators, making us somewhat self-sufficient as far as having electricity is concerned. The above BBC report states that power went out country-wide briefly. Nothing new, because the power goes out briefly 5 or 6 times a day, as you may have read in one of the posts I made when I first arrived in the country.
Here’s a shot I took when the storm first started coming ashore on Saturday.
As I mentioned above, we are still getting some brief periods of rain and heavy winds, and at the moment we’re in the middle of winds and rain as fierce as any that have preceded. I opened my front door a crack to see what was going on and got pelted with heavy rains blowing horizontally across the balcony and I had a heck of a time getting the door closed again due to the wind. I also just noticed that water is pouring in under my door. I better get my power strip off the floor before I get electrocuted, sitting here in my bare feet. It ain’t over ’til it’s over. More later.
The rain has stopped for now, so while I’m waiting for the next torrent to begin, here are a couple of photos to amuse you.
The first one is a shot of the wind blowing the rain off the roof of the storage shed next to my room.
And here’s Lake Boca Chica, otherwise known as centerfield.
The team was finally able to get in a game at the home field yesterday, hosting, and losing, to the Kansas City Royals club. That stopped the streak at 5 unplayed games here. Unfortunately, the Mets ended the Big Club’s streak at 9 wins. Time to start a new one.
I uploaded more of the Boca Chica photos to the Photo Gallery, if anyone’s interested. They’re in the Dominican Republic section.
I’ve got lots to keep me occupied until I fly out of here on July 11th. I think this weekend I might do a practice pack to see how much room I might have for souvenirs to bring back. I’m going to leave a lot of stuff behind, since I’ll be returning in October. As I wrote in a previous post, I also have a lot of paperwork to complete, and I have some workshops to conduct up in Samana as soon as I come back, so I have to work on those before I leave.
The players finally get their first paycheck today–I hope they don’t go crazy in Boca Chica, but I’m not too worried; they’re a pretty good bunch of guys. It’s odd how the pay system works. Some of them have been here since the camp reopened in February, but none of them get paid until they actually start playing the Dominican Summer League games. Many of them have been without ample amounts of money for quite a while now. Like I said, I hope they don’t go overboard in Boca Chica. Most of the foreign players (Venezuelans, Panamanians, etc.), I hear, are waiting for next weekend, when there is a big concert just down the road.
Speaking of foreign players, the Yanks just signed a Brazilian tryout player, Michael Souza. That seems unusual, since Brazil is known more for its great passion for football (that’s soccer to you norteamericanos) than for turning out baseball players. In fact, I don’t recall there ever being a Brazilian player in the majors. I’ll have to check. (In fact, that’s your homework assignment–find me a Brazilian born player who was in the majors.) More later.
Again, we had some heavy showers over night and again, for the 5th straight game, the team won’t be playing here today. It looks like the bus is fired up, so perhaps the away game might be played. Now, though, the skies are clear and sunny, so let’s hope good weather is here to stay.
As promised, I finally took some photos of Boca Chica, most of which I’ll post to the Photo Gallery. But, here are some for your perusal.
Here’s a scene along the main road in the town, Avenida Duarte. There’s lots of these places where you can buy a large variety of paintings. I don’t know how much of them are mass produced. I saw a guy painting one once and the canvas had all the outlines of the various elements already drawn in, much like a Paint-by-Number kit. Still, they’re pretty. The canvas rolls up easily for traveling, so if I have enough room in my baggage, I might bring a few back.
Here’s a shot along the beach. It’s unusual in that there are very few people here, even though it’s a Saturday.
Maybe everyone was at the Harley-Davidson festival that day. Here’s one of the bikes–lots of nice looking ones.
Here’s a view from my usual hangout, under the palm trees. This is the best part of the beach, in my opinion. Everything here, food and drink, is a bit expensive, but you’re really paying for the ambience.
Finally, we haven’t had too many good sunrises or sunsets lately, but this one was kind of nice. The white dot in the upper middle of the photo is Venus.
Also, I forgot to mention (and I hope I don’t jinx them) that the Big Club has now won 8 in a row and cut the Red Sox lead to 8 1/2 games.
Breaking News!
Ok, it’s not that breathtaking, but since I started writing this, the Diamondbacks bus came to the camp. At first I thought that they were going to try to play a game here, but, looking out my bathroom window, I see that the Yankee team is boarding the bus. Obviously, the Arizona club, which was supposed to play here today, sent their bus to pick up the Yanks and take them to the Diamondback field, which must have missed all the rain. Our bus, in the meantime, is transporting the Bombers to the regularly scheduled away field (haven’t looked to see who they are playing). Obviously, our camp lay right under the path of the bands of rain clouds that have been passing through the area, but some of the other camps were spared.
Here are a few shots of the fields this morning. In the first one, if you look at the left background, you can see the players working out (stretching) under the batting shed. In the second, you see that it’s still raining by the sprinkling in the water.
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