Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
July 12, 2002, Washington Post

The Baseball Island

What do Sammy Sosa, Manny Ramirez, Vladimir Guerrero and Alfonso Soriano have in common?

All of these baseball stars are from the Dominican Republic. In fact, nine of the players selected for Tuesday's All-Star Game are from the tiny island nation east of Cuba. The Dominican Republic is small and poor and has fewer than 9 million people, but it produces an amazing number of professional baseball players.

John McCarthy, director of Washington's Home Run Baseball Camp, has taken his camp to the Dominican Republic five times to start programs that help Dominican kids stay in school while they are playing baseball. Former major leaguer Pepe Frias, a Dominican, helps McCarthy. I spoke to Coach Mac, as the campers call him, about the Dominican Republic.

How are the Dominican Republic and the Washington area different?

From a kid's point of view, a big difference is that Dominican kids only go to school for a half day. So they have more free time. There is very little television in the Dominican Republic, and it is about 80 degrees all the time, so the kids stay outside and play baseball.

Do the kids play other sports?

You might see someone kicking a soccer ball or shooting baskets with a basketball. But the overwhelming majority of boys in the Dominican Republic play baseball.

What about the girls, do they play baseball?

Not as much. Dominican girls are encouraged to be good students and to help around the house. But they still love the game. We started a softball clinic during one of our visits and over 300 girls showed up on the first day.

Are there many organized baseball leagues in the Dominican Republic?

There are leagues for some of the older kids, but lots of Dominican kids play pickup baseball. They do not have much equipment, so they have to make up their own games. Dominican kids will play baseball games for hours with a bottle cap and a stick. Or they will play in an open field with a ball and bases that they made themselves.

Why do you think that so many professional baseball players come from the Dominican Republic?

First, all the best athletes in the country play baseball. They don't lose players to other sports like basketball or lacrosse.

Second, the warm climate allows kids to play all the time. And they do. One day we ended our clinic, but the 700 kids who were there could not believe that we were leaving. The sun was still up. They wanted to keep playing ball.

Finally, a lot of kids in the Dominican Republic are poor and so they have a real hunger to learn the game and succeed in baseball.

What could American kids learn from Dominican kids about playing baseball?

To get more joy out of playing baseball. . . . Dominican kids play every kind of baseball game you can think of. And they like all these games for the same reason American kids like playing games -- it's a great way to have fun with your friends.

Fred Bowen's baseball novels include "Winners Take All," "Playoff Dreams" and "T.J.'s Secret Pitch."

© 2002 The Washington Post Company