Thanks Mr Robinson

Today is a great day for Baseball, and a greatest day for Latin Baseball players, today MLB celebrates Jackie Robinson day, thanks to him, and for the Dodgers we can enjoy many players from this part of the world.

Just imagine the pressure for him and on the Dodgers on those days, the Dodgers has been always pioneers in baseball, they were the fisrt one the have an academy in the DR, thanks to them today many families make a living from baseball in the DR, thanks to the them, in a big way, the Dominican Republic is the news for the performance of their Dominican Players.

Thanks again Mr Robinson

Dominican Winter League update, 10/23 to 10/28

A lot of things had happened since my last update, Escogido ended up winning five in a row, started last sunday against Licey and endep up last night against the same team.

October 22, 2006

Escogido 5 Licey 1

Escogido got his 1,450th victory beating Licey 5-1 ant tying the City Champ at 1, Victor Santos got the win and rookie Tony Peguero took the loss, Shane Costa lead Escogido offensive with with 3 hits, including a double, 1 rbi and 2 R, Enrique Wilson, 2 hits, 2 rbi's and 1 R and Joey Votto got 2 hits and a RBI. The only Licey run came by a James Lonet sacrifice fly inthe third inning, scoring Emilio Bonifacio.

Aguilas 10 Gigantes 9 (10 innings)

A error by Wilson Valdez in the 10th episode gave Aguilas a win 10-9 over Gigantes.

Hector Almonte got the win and Dario Veras took the loss, Kendry Morales had a Hr, 2b and a hit for Gigantes, and Luis Polonia had 2 hits.

For Aguilas pitched Fausto Carmona, Jhonny Cueto, Edward Valdez, Claudio Galvá, Jim Warden and Héctor Almonte.

For Gigantes, went to the box Rafael Pérez, Mártinez Franco, Leoncio Estrella, Juan Pérez, Julio de la Cruz and Franklin Pérez.

October 24, 2006

Escogido 6 Estrellas 1

Jorge de Paula pitched six scoreless innings to be the key player in Escogido victory over Estrellas, with the win Escogido took over the lead of the tournament.

Joey Votto and Enrique Wilson were more notables for Escogido


Aguilas 4 Licey 1

A inspired Aguilas team spoiled the season debut of mets Anderson Hernandez and Napoleon Calzado for Licey, with Dereck Lee on the mount and the bat of Alex Fernandez, The team from Santiago scored 4 runs on the first inning against Jose Jimenez, that were enough to beat Licey. Lee retired at one point of the game 11 consecutive batters.

In the Picture Brandon Moss scores one of Aguilas runs.

October 25, 2006

Licey 7 Gigantes 2

Willy Aybay hit a 3run Hr to help Licey end a loosing streak, Felix Pie and Emilio Bonifacio both had 2 hits, for Licey Evan Mclane started the game and Edward Ramirez, Wilton Chavez, Adalberto Ramirez, Jose Nunez and Mark Alexander followed him.

Box Score

Willy Aybar watch the ball for his Hr.






Estrellas 7 Aguilas 5

Estrellas rallied for five runs in the 6th inning to beat Aguilas, Lenin Picota got the win and Agustin Montero the save, Jared Fernandez took the loss.

Jose Reyes and Eduard Roger with 2b and a single, and Joel Guzman got 2 hits to lead the Estrellas offensive.

For Aguilas Luis Polonia got 2 triples and a single, Tony Batista a Hr, Brandon Moss and Tony Pena Jr double and a hit each.

Escogido 6 Toros 3

Nerio Rodriguez pitched 6 innings with 2 ER to lead Escogido to a 6-3 win over Toros.

Escogido scored 2 runs in the 6th inning with a Shane Costa double.

October 26, 2006

Aguilas 11 Toros 7

Aguilas won 11-7 over Toros, Edwars Valdez won and Ricardo Rodriguez took the loss.

The winners scored four runs in the 4th inning, with Tony Pena Jr with a 2run hit.

Licey 6 Estrellas 3

Felix Pie got 3 hits and four rbi's to lead Licey to a victory over Gigantes, Onelis Perez got the win in relieve and Henry Owens the save.

Escogido 10 Gigantes 4

Escogido rallied for six runs in the first inning and ended up beating Gigantes 10-4, it was Escogido fourth win in a row, Freddy Guzman led the offensive, and Argenis Reyes, Angel Pena and Chris Denorfia got 2 hits each.

Polonia tied Manny Mota triples record

Luis Polonia got his 40th life triple in the DWL to tied with Miguel Dilone, and inning later hit his 41 to tie Manny Mota.

October 27, 2006

Escogido 5 Toros 0

Angel Pena hit 2 hr to lead Escogido offensive, it was 5th consecutive win for Escogido, Peter Munro got the win.

Estrellas Aguilas

Three Estrellas pitchers combined to beat Aguilas and Jose Lima had to put his dirty mouth someplace else, Radhamés Liz pitched four innings, Ronny Martinez followed him and Jailen Peguero pitched the last two innings.

Lima pitched six innings with 9h, 3er and a SO.

October 28, 2006

Licey 6 Escogido 4

Arizona prospect, Emilio Bonifacio got a 2rbi single that ended up to decisive to Licey win over Escogido, with the win Licey is half game behind Escogido. James Loney got a rbi double and Felix Pie a 2rbi double.

Licey got a good effort from lefty Carlos Perez, who got the win, Wilton Chavez followed him and Henry Owens got his third save. Ubaldo Jimenez started the game for Licey.

Gigantes 3 Aguilas 2

Jose Capellan made his debut and had a pitching duel with Fausto Carmona for five innings

Toros 9 Estrellas 1

Nelson Figueroa pitched six strong innings and allowed only 3hits, Luis Terrero hit a Hr and a double for 4 rbi's, to help Estrellas beat Toros 9-1.

Matt kemp made his debut for Estrellas.

Licey solo in First, Aguilas lost third in a row

Do you remember Jose Lima?, well, he's still pitching and he's doing well, last night he pitched 6 strong inning, 2 of them were perfect but had no desition on the game, Licey finally won the game 4-1 in Santiago, home of Aguilas.

Lima only allowed two hits over six innings, had 5 K's and gave only 2 bb, he left the game winning 1-0, it was Lima time on Santiago last night, he looked very strong.

Brandon Moss hit a HR for the only run of Aguilas in the game, for Licey, Felix Pie had a 2 rbi bases loaded double in the ninth and Jose Bautista had a single in the 8th inning to give Licey a 2-1 lead and finally Pie gave them a 4-1 victory over Aguilas, with the win, Licey is in firt place with a 3-1 record.

Estrellas 5 Escogido 1

Pedro Lopez had 3 rbi's and Fernando Tatis, Yes! That's the same Fernando Tatis, is no mistake, went 4-4, Estrellas rallied in the 8th against Astros' Ezequiel Astacio who took the loss, Escogido made 5 errors in the game and hit only 3 hits.

Notes: Estrellas currently have 1,482 lifetime losses in the Dominican Winter League, and can be the first team to reach the 1,500 loss, Estrellas has not won a championship since, hmmm?!, well, I was not born yet, it was in the late 1950's.

Azucareros 5 Gigantes 4

Juan Senreiso hit a 3run Hr to tie the game 4-4 and Eddy Garabito hit a solo shot in the 8th ti give Azucareros a win over Gigantes on Saturday night.

Standings.

Licey 3-1
Gigantes 2-2
Escogido 2-2
Azucareros 2-2
Estrellas 2-2
Aguilas 1-3


Today's games

• Licey (Tony Peguero) vs Escogido (Victor Santos), you can listen the game Live at Licey website, maybe you can have a play by play.
• Gigantes (Rafael Perez) vs Aguilas (Fausto Carmona) at Santiago
• Azucareros (Nelson Figueroa) vs Estrellas (Esteban Yan) at San Pedro de Macoris

All pitchers are probable, all games are at 5:00pm

Dominican Winter League Update, Loney makes debut, hit 3 run HR

The Dominican Winter League started last Wensday with Licey Beating Escogido, Aguilas won over Gigantes and Estrellas over Azucareros.

Including last night games we have three way tide in first place with Licey, Escogido and Gigantes with a 2-1 record, and Aguilas, Estrellas and Azucareros with a 1-2 record.


Escogido 6 Aguilas 1

Escogido beat Aguilas last night for two victories in a row against the Santiago team, Enrique Wilson and Shane Costa where notables in Escogido Offensive and Pascual Coco pitched the last four innings to get the victory.

Gigantes 3 Estrellas 2

The game was tide until the 7th inning, but a wild pitch by Rene Minier allowed the go ahead run, Enmanuel Ulloa and Anastacio Martinez got in a pitching match, Dario Veras got the save.

Licey 8 Azucareros 3

James Loney hit a 3 run Hr, went 4-2, with 3 rbi's and a run scored in his first multi hit game in the Dominican Winter League, Timoniel Perez had two rbi's, Dennis Tankersley got the victory, with 6 innings, 2 ER and just 3 hits.

Willy Aybar went 3-2, with 1 rbi and 1 run scored, Felix Pie 4-1, rbi, r.

Ervin Santana went by Licey offices and makes promise that he will pitch this year, also Carlos Marmol and Ubaldo Jimenez.

Francisco Liriano plans to play with Escogido as part of his rehab.

James Loney to play in the Dominican Winter League

Dodgers James Loney will play this winter with Licey in the season that starts today, he will play first base for Licey, he arrived today, will rest tnight and might play tomorrow.

The Dominican Winter League starts today with Licey looking for his 20th championship, and second in a row, they'll play Escogido in Santo Domingo, in Santiago, Aguilas will play the Gigantes and in San Pedro de Macoris Estrellas will play Azucareros.

More updates in a few moments

Report. Matt Kemp to play in the Dominican Winter League

According to a report from sports talk radio "La voz del Fanatico" (The Fan voice) Dodgers rookie Matt Kemp will play this winter with Estrellas, a team who has not won a championship since... well, late 1950's.

Good luck to him, playing here will do him very good.

More news when available.

Mondesi's troubles and other news from the DR

Former MLB player Raul Mondesi and current congressman for his native San Cristobal is jumping from trouble to trouble.

In his first assembly day he gave a declaration that he will play baseball in the winter with Escogido, but he is not playing or training.

Last monday at a local club he was involved with a journalist, the journalist complaints that Mondesi threaten him to "broke his mouth" because of some comments he made in his program.

Mondesi is also accused of not paying the electrical bill in one of his business in San Cristobal.

I guess he we will give us plenty to write about in the next four years.

Night game to start earlier

Due to the new government resolution that not alcoholic beverage can be sold after 12:00pm on weekdays baseball games will start at 7:30pm instead of 8:00pm

Dodgers deals

The Dodgers had made today before the deadline two deals, first getting Greg Maddux from the Cubs for Cesar Izturis and Julio Lugo from Tampa Bay for prospects/rookies Joel Guzman and Sergio Pedroza.

For me the best deal was to get rid of Odalis Perez, the fact is that his mind is not on baseball, since the winter, when he was traded to Escogido Lions, ask for opening day and then getting lost and never returning, he just made clear that he did not care.

Mondesi to Congress? Willy Aybar Traded

I've been meaning to post this for about 4 days, but elections where last Tuesday and today... we don't know many of the results, anyway, Raul Mondesi was a candidate for congress for his hometown San Cristobal, so his party won and there's a good chance Mondesi will have a seat on the Dominican Congress, what projects you think he'll summit?

In other news Dodgers Willy Aybar was traded in the Winter Leagues from Estrellas to Licey, Estrellas got Tony Blanco from Licey.

Willy will play with his brother Erick in the winter, Willy had seen limited play time with Estrellas.

Who needs them anyway!

The Dominican team is 2-0 so far in the WBC, the players in the current roster are the one who wanted to play for their country, for their pride or whatever reason they had to do it, the one's that are not on the roster and were invited will regret not playing for the team.

The most recent case is Vladimir Guerrero who because of his cousins dead, who by the way was driving at 200 km/h at the time of the crash decided to withdraw from WBC, then told team officials that he would play, then denied it.

Dominican Players some times forget to shut their mouth, is not the first time Vlad does somthing like this, in fact during the Winter he told Licey several times he was going to play, even asking for ball and bats to practice, eventually he did not play, but Licey won anyway.

I always believe the the best player is the one who really wants to play.

We wanted A-Rod, Manny and Vlad, but thankfully we had Adrian, Moises, Big Papi, Soriano among others, those are the players that the Dominican people should like, not the ones that did not come.

Trying to keep up

Some old news that you might already knew, writing had been very difficult in the last couple of months, but some interesting happened while I was away.

First Licey won their 19th championship over an superior Aguilas team who had players such as Miguel Tejada, Willy Mo Peña, Victor Diaz on their rosters, but the bog difference for Licey was the work of two young players, Angels Erick Aybar and Mets Anderson Hernandez, Hernandez started the season on the bench, but eventually gained the 2b position, and at the end of the regular season was replaced by Luis Castillo, who in the last game was hit by a pitch in the right foot and Hernandez took back his position driving a triple that started a winning rally giving Licey a ticket to the Finals to face Aguilas.

Aguilas was the favorite to win the best of five series, Licey won the first game, and then Aguilas won the next two putting Licey behind 1-2, but Licey tied the series and never looked back, one great experience for me was to watch Jose Lima take a beat and arguing with Aguilas Manager Felix Fermin when he tried to pull him out.

Finally Won the series 5-2 and begunarrangementss to travel to Venezuela to avoid last year experience of getting late to the tournament.

So now Venezuela is leading the series after yesterday win over the Dominican Republic.

So, more updates later.

Lima close to deal with Padres

According to his own words Jose Lima is close to sign a deal with the San Diego Padres, he did not reveal any details like money involved or duration, he gave this declarations during an interview in La Semana Deportiva.

In the interview he also made accusation to the umpires and questioned their work, the Dominican Winter League is working only with local umpires since last season and their authority in the field and has generate many discussions during games.

A little change... Grady new Dodgers manager

Grady Little was hired as the new LA Dodger Manager

Dominican Winter League update

The tournament is heating up, Licey and Aguilas are tied in first, Escogido just 2 games behind, and Azucareros and Estrellas fighting for the last spot to the playoffs.

Teams like Licey have their roster filled with promising rookies like Hanley Ramirez at 3B, SS and 2B, Anderson Hernandez at 2B, Erick Aybar at 2B, Felix Pie at CF among others, and the return of veterans like Henry Rodriguez, Willis Otañez and Jose Offerman.

LA Dodgers donate three buses

The Los Angeles Dodgers donated three buses to the Sports and recreational ministry of the Dominican Republic. The Buses with 60 seats each will be used in several youth programs to develop new talents in different areas, the vehicle are already in Dominican customs and will be available in the next few days.

This is not the first donation from the Dodgers a few months ago they did the same to the community if Guerra, where their academy is located.

Tom Lassorda was representing the team, he also met with President Leonel Fernandez, threw the first ball in a Licey game and was with Hall of Famer Juan Marichal and participate in a golf tournament held by President Fernandez foundation.

Lassorda comes every year to the Dominican Republic where he has many friends and is very popular, he was manager for Licey and Escogido in the 70's.

Furcal a Dodger, his drinking problems and his quality

Reports from LA and in Santo Domingo shows that Rafael Furcal had agreed to sign with the Dodgers for 3 years and around 40 millions.

Furcal had drinking problems in the past, in fact he was in jail for that, according to some people near him he is done with that (at least DUI, he gets a driver now), but Furcal is an excellent player an very versatile one.

He play in winter at SS, 2B or 3B, depends on where his team needs him, and all of three positions played above average, he played 3B for the national team (Licey) in the Caribbean series here in Santo Domingo, and Dodgers fans will enjoy his hard playing, he always run hard and gives an extra to the team.

Personally I don't like him very much, he played for teams that I hate (Braves and Escogido), but that can not take away from him his conditions as a player.

His drinking problems?

Let's really hope that those days are behind him, he's a good man and a family man, but please!!!!!, I can't stand another distraction for the Dodgers!

Frank McCourt to be honored?

A lot of lines had been written about how bad are the Mcourts, or how they handling a once proud organization named the Los Angeles Dodgers.

And now he'll be honored in the Latin sport awards next November 14th.

"McCourt will be honored for the efforts of the Los Angeles Dodgers to Dominican Baseball by Campo Las Palmas, operating since 1987.

McCourt will be here with Tommy La Sorda."


The Dodgers donate a bus to the Guerra Community a few months ago.

Of course, they are eliminating a team from the Dominican Summer League and are leasing half Campo Las Palmas. (Tks to Rob for the tip)

So I wonder if the good reporters of the Dominican Republic will ask him some good answers or will just talk to La Sorda... Will they ask him about the GM and Manager search... I don't Think so.

Mondesi will run for mayor

Yes, you read it!, Raul Mondesi will run for mayor of his hometown San Cristobal, he plans to keep both careers, baseball ans politics.

For now he is a pre-candidate, but he have the money and support from a big member of the party.

Odalis Traded!

NO, the Dodgers did not trade Odalis, his former team Estrellas Orientales traded him to Leones del Escogido for AAA pitcher Greg Aquino. Odalis demanded a trade after his bid to buy Estrellas was rejected, he was almost dealt to Licey but after rookie Felix Diaz told Estrellas that he was not sure of pitching to them they turned to their second option, Leones del Escogido.

I doubt that OP will pitch this winter, and if he does is not going to be with Licey, thanks god for that, Licey was going to give away a great rookie pitcher for him.

This blog is not over yet!

It's been almost two months since my last post, I've just been so busy and dealing with a few things, since my last post a lot of things had happened in the baseball world.

The Baseball World Cup, a upcoming disaster for the Dominican Republic.

Next year will be held the famous baseball world cup, every country is making arrangements to have the best posible team, what the DR have done so far? NOTHING... I can imagine biulding a team in December or January on the run, and making the same thing that we did in the last Caribbean Series.

Well, I Promise to post more often, thanks to those people who have e-mailed me, some encouraging me to keep writting and some other to insult me or some of my countrymen.


See you soon...