Hello, my name is Isabel and today I'm going to write about baseball.

In Dominican Republic baseball is a tradition, no,no,no, is a pasion. Most of dominicans love baseball. In the baseball season everibody talk about baseball, wear their baseball team's t-shirt, caps, and bags, you can see the games in each corner's groceries in a big screen, and people don't talk or think about economics problems, politic, prizes, but just about baseball.

There is not uncommon to hear a lot of discussions on the street, public transportation or at work about which team is better, in spite of you don't know the players, average or game's schedule you always defend your team (licey, aguilas, escogidos, gigantes, estrellas, toros).

The best thing about this season is that families and friends meets to share and see the game together. for that reason, I like the baseball season in my country.

Winter baseball; a real war in Dominican Republic

Every fall in Dominican Republic take place the war of baseball teams, from the north AGUILAS CIBAEÑAS and GIGANTES DEL CIBAO, from the east we have TOROS and ESTRELLAS ORIENTALES and from Santo Domingo TIGRES DEL LICEY and LEONES DEL ESCOGIDO.

It starts in the regular series, where they play 160 games, and the best four of that part continue then to the ROUND ROBIN which is an exciting part of the series, in my opinion is better than the final series because it means a competition to get the best two teams. The most explosive game is when LICEY and AGUILAS face to give the audition a great exhibition  of how to play basseball.

After one of thoose win the final series which  is the best of seven then becomes the national champion.

That is the best baseball of  las americas. Thats why we are the worl champions.

Dominican Republic’s ‘Desperate’ Baseball Culture Fuels Steroid Use, Experts SayBy Bryan LlenasPublished August 09, 2013Fox News Latino

For boys in the Dominican Republic, it’s about becoming a major league ballplayer – at all costs.In a country where 40 percent of the nation lives at or below the poverty rate, Dominicans who are 12 to 14 years old regularly quit school to begin baseball training in private academies in the hopes of saving their families from a lifetime of poverty. For these boys, it’s baseball or failure.For Major League Baseball, like in any business, it’s about the bottom line, mainly, how to find the next franchise player at the lowest cost possible.

But the combination of both priorities mix together like a toxic concoction, in the form of steroid-filled syringes, made easily available to thousands of teenage Dominicans dreaming of lifting their families out of poverty with a swing of the bat. 

The recent suspension of 13 players, 9 of whom are Dominican, by Major League Baseball in the Biogenesis scandal highlights how the growing problem in the country has affected the sport – and many are questioning whether baseball is doing enough to fight the steroid culture in the Dominican Republic, a country the majors has grown more and more reliant on for top talent."If they see that baseball is not the only way out - you’ll see a dramatic drop in use of steroids because the win at all cost mentality will disappear."

- Charles S. Farrell, Co-founder of the Dominican Republic Sports and Education AcademyAs it has each year since MLB began releasing data in 1995, the D.R. led all foreign countries with the most players in the majors in 2013 with 89 players on opening day rosters (out of 856) – the fourth most the nation has ever produced. But, at the same time, the country has a disproportionate number of players who have violated the leagues performance-enhancing drug policy. According to the MLB, thus far in 2013, 15 of the 44 players suspended for steroids in the minor leagues are Dominican and, in 2012, 31 minor league Dominicans were suspended out of 105 total suspensions.

The problem, say experts like David Fidler, co-author of “Stealing Lives: The Globalization of Baseball and the Tragic Story of Alexis Quiroz,” is Major League Baseball’s knack for being reactionary, suspending players, instead of proactive in choosing not to attack the root of the PED problem, like the drug dealers themselves.The players implicated in the Biogenesis scandal, including Alex Rodriguez, Nelson Cruz, and Jhonny Peralta, were only caught because MLB cut deals with the drug dealers themselves, who in this case, exchanged valuable information on their customers for immunity.

 In the Dominican Republic, many of these dealers, who Fidler calls part of the root of the problem, are referred to as buscones – individuals who train players and then get a cut of their signing bonus, reportedly 10 to 40 percent, when they sign on to an MLB team.

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That time when I learned about Dominican baseball with a Japanese guy

That time when I learned about Dominican baseball with a Japanese guy

I arrived in Tokyo on March 18th of this current year. It was a long and tiresome flight, add to that the fact people will look at you as some sort of alien and the awkwardness of one's day could only intensify.

A few days prior to our trip our country won the Serie del Caribe championship and we became, at least for a few days, worldwide famous, still I didn't assume our popularity could reach the farthest corners of the earth.

Currently mistaken by an African woman (which was pretty cool by the way, specially when you're as proud of your African roots as I am), people kept staring at me and my family everywhere we went; in a few cases when people felt like asking about our country instead of assuming where we were from, the word 'Dominican' caused a mayor and positive reaction among people.

They kept saying with a surprise look on their faces: 'Dominican?!' 'world-champion!' and kept going, on something similar to English, about how great Alex and Manny are and gave me a very graphic description of their greatest games while I kept nodding and smiling because the truth is they knew more about Dominican baseball that what I've learned in 26 years.

To conclude, baseball -sports in general- are as popular as music, no matter where you go it is a very well known topic, it's part of the world culture, so please save yourself the embarrassment of not knowing your own national sport or you might end up learning about it by a Japanese guy in a random subway line somewhere in Tokyo.




Written by: Ruth Indhira López Capellán
ID: CG-2624

Baseball as a hobby in D.R.

In our country baseball is the national sport. People, specially men like to watch it on t.v. but it's more exciting to see it in the field. It is practice by a lot of people: children, young people and adults. Some companies organize teams for their employees. It doesn't matter if they are not professional players, they enjoy to playing a friendly sport that helps them to feel out of routine. Those people play on holidays and weekends, and after games they're used to have a metting to celebrate and  to talk about games, jokes, experiences, cars, etc. while they are drinking some beers or rhum. Sometimes this game is not the best for some wives that usually don't go to  the game, but I consider that it's a good hobby for people that couldn´t be a professional player.

Carmen Delgado
CB-0657

According to MLB. some player will go to spring training in order to prove they are worthy for big league  deals.The following  list give us  information about on player from japan who are going to play an important roles with Major League of Baseball in 2013.

• Hiroyuki Nakajima: from Oakland.
• Kyuji Fujikawa: from Chicago cubs.
• Hisashi Iwakama: from Seattle Mariners.
• Tsuyoshi Wada: form Orioles of Baltimore.
• Junis Tazawa: from the Red Sox.
• Yu Darvish: from Texas Rangers.
• Norichika Aoki: from Milwaukee.
• Ichiro Suzuki: From New York  Yankees.

As a result of baseball, Japan and the United State have kept a good relation between them.
This sport has stopped conflict between those big and powerful countries. Nowaday there are a lot of japan's players in the United State and there are as many North americans' players as in Japan trained and recruiting new talent from Japan.



Hector D. Feliz Montero.
DC2869.

Hello everybody, teacher Atilano, this is my first time in this blog. I haven't ever been in any blog. Well, about the baseball game, I like it but I'm not a crazy fanatic. My favorite team is Los Tigres del Licey. I always enjoy the final serie when Licey is playing.