Baseball City

by Marshall on March 7, 2011

These days I’m working in San Pedro de Macoris, a city of 200,000 about an hour west of Santo Domingo. Compared to the capital, its pretty quiet. Not a big tourist town. Not too much to call attention, just the constant hum of motorcycles zipping around the streets.

You’d never guess it was the baseball capital of the world.

That’s right. San Pedro produces more Major League Baseball players per capita than any other city in the world. That number is exactly 76, according to Baseball-Reference.com. Sammy Sosa. Alfonso Soriano. George Bell. José Offerman. Robinson Cano. Guillermo Mota…

MLB.com documents the San Pedro baseball phenomenon with a great video. Unfortunately I can’t embed it here, so click here to watch it.

And, just for fun, have a listen to 12-time Latin Grammy winner Juan Luis Guerra singing a merengue tribute to his San Pedro roots:

 

¡Oh!, san pedro de macorís, ey
I’d like to live in the streets
Of san pedro de macorís
I’d like to live in the streets
Of san pedro de macorís
I’d like to sing my song
In the middle of malecón
I’d like to sing my song
In the middle of malecón
Drinking my guavaberry
Watching the sun go down, oh
Woman that’s all i need
In san pedro de macorís, oh!

{ 1 comment }

Dominicanization

by Marshall on October 12, 2010

Generic photo of Dominican domino

Dominicans have their own vocabulary, or dominicanismos. For example, aplatanarse means something like “to become a legit dominican”.

Here’s how I’m progressing:

Several initial nicknames:  Americano, Marcial, Moro, and Yunerko. Notice the progression away from something that automatically says “gringo”.

Typical foods I have eaten:  moro (standard dark rice & black beans), sancocho (ridiculously tasty vegetable and meat stew over white rice, served with fresh avocado), yuca (yuca), mangú (mashed plantains), and mondongo (I dare you to google it). Mondongo is tripe, which means it is the stomach lining of a cow. This is something I learned hours after I ate it. I’ll probably steer clear of it from now on. It was chewy.

Baseball:  The Dominican Republic is the most educated country in the world. Every Dominican has their doctorate in baseball. If I want to make a new friend, all I have to say is that I’m from Chicago and start talking about all the Dominicans who have played for the Cubs. Sammy Sosa, Moises Alou, Alfonso Soriano, Aramis Ramirez, Carlos Marmol, Starlin Castro…I already met someone who knows Sosa and is neighbors with Soriano.

Dominó:  Baseball is what every dominican dreams of, but Dominó is what every Dominican plays once they realize they aren’t going to get signed by the Yanquis (Yankees). I played for the first time last night with a bunch of guys. This ain’t no Mexican train. You use a 28-domino set (6 is the highest number), 4 players with your partner across from you. The rules are pretty simple:  everyone picks 7 pieces and you go around playing them trying to get rid of your pieces on the community-shared 2-ended domino train. But the strategy gets very complicated and involves watching your partner, keeping track of which dominos have been played, etc. I did alright and even won one round, but I won’t say I knew what I was doing. By June I should have it down.

The ultimate dominican test is probably to buy a moto (motor scooter) and survive one day in Dominican traffic. Dominicans are self-admittedly crazy drivers. Today I saw a guy doing a wheelie down a busy street on his tiny motor scooter. As much as I want to (I don’t), I won’t be driving here.

Hasta la próxima.

{ 5 comments }