Dominican baseball
Baseball , the most popular sport game in the island
History:
Baseball was introduced in the Caribbean in 1866 by U.S. sailors loading sugar in the then Spanish colony of Cuba. Also, it is known that two Cuban students, brothers Ernest and Nemesio Guillo, attended Spring Hill College in Alabama during 1860 and brought baseball to Cuba. Eight years later, in 1874, the first organized game of baseball was played between Cuban teams. In the years to come it would be Cuba that spread baseball throughout the Caribbean. When the Ten Years' War (1868-1878) in Cuba brought turmoil to the colony, many Cubans fled their country and migrated to the Dominican Republic, bringing baseball with them. In the 1920s the Dominicans began to play against neighboring countries.
In the early 1900s, four Dominican teams formed. These teams still exist today, and form the foundation of Dominican professional baseball:
- Tigres del Licey (1907)
- Estrellas Orientales (1911)
- Leones del Escogido (1921)
- Sandino, later renamed Las Águilas (1937)
To date, 420 players from the Dominican Republic have played in the Majors (1956-2005), and according to Major League Baseball there are 119 players representing Latin America, which is 24% of major leaguers. Of these 119 players, 90 players come from the Dominican Republic. There are more Dominicans playing in the Majors than from any other country in Latin America, and the Dominican Republic has more players in the Majors than all other countries in Latin America combined. Dominicans have even made strides in other aspects of the game. In 2003 Tony Pena, formerly of the Kansas City Royals, coached against Felipe Alou, of the San Francisco Giants, making it the first time that two Dominicans coached against each other in the Majors. And in 2004 Omar Minaya became the first Dominican General Manager, working the front office for the New York Mets.
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