Sunday, November 19, 2006
Our First Dominican Baseball Game
We have been hearing about Dominican baseball ever since we got here. We've heard that people here take their baseball seriously, but it's like a crazy madhouse at the games - people dancing merengue in the aisles, rowdy and loud crowds, etc. Well, we went to our first game last night, and we were sorely disappointed.
Licey, one of the two major Dominican teams, was playing in their home stadium last night, and when we arrived about 15 minutes before the start of the game, the stadium was practically empty. Apparently, Licey was playing the worst team in the league, and all the season ticket holders decided they would rather do something else with their time. As you can see from the picture here, we were practically the only ones there.
The dude with the flag is Roger, a Canadian who lives here who we met through Holly. We hang out on the weekends with them sometimes. We're spending Thanksgiving with Roger and Holly (right behind Roger) this year. The two young men in the front are two boys that Roger has practically picked up out of the gutter to feed, clothe, and educate them. Juan and Onasi are from the poorest and most dangerous part of town. I don't know how Roger met them, but for about five years, Roger has been taking care of them on the weekends and helping them with education and their health. Right now, one of them has a gigantic absess in his abdomen - not uncommon for the poor here - which would have gone untreated accept for the fact that Roger took them to the hospital and paid for the treatment. They were happy to be at the game, but they think it's cool to look miserable and bored in pictures. No matter what we did, we couldn't get them to smile for the camera.
Even though Licey was playing the worst team in the league, they got smoked. The die hard fans that were there at the game were not happy at all. We sat right behind the opposing team's dugout, so this picture is of them congratulating a player who just came in with a run. The Toros scored five runs, and Licey scored none. It was a pretty boring game.
In the true Dominican fashion, they push the alcohol like you woulnd't believe. I don't really know about basball in the USA, but
I'm pretty sure they don't sell just about any kind of hard liquor you can imagine at baseball games. There were venders walking around with buckets of rum, selling it to the spectators. It was crazy. I (Claire) had a hot dog.
Here we are in front of the stadium. John was wearing his new Licey hat to show his support.
You can't see what this is a picture of because our camera stinks. In fact, almost all the pictures of the game turned out too blurry to keep. We need a new camera. Anyway- this is a picture of the "cheerleaders" who dance on top of the Licey dugout. I think they should be called pole-dancers instead. They shook their booties in every suggestive manner you can think of... no wonder women are so objectified here! It was about ten times worse than any cheerleader dance or even high school poms dance I've ever seen in the USA. We plan to go back to another game - maybe on December 8th when two major rivals play each other, although some people have told us that it gets dangerous at those games. We'll see how it goes. We know we want to exerience a real Dominican baseball game.
Licey, one of the two major Dominican teams, was playing in their home stadium last night, and when we arrived about 15 minutes before the start of the game, the stadium was practically empty. Apparently, Licey was playing the worst team in the league, and all the season ticket holders decided they would rather do something else with their time. As you can see from the picture here, we were practically the only ones there.
The dude with the flag is Roger, a Canadian who lives here who we met through Holly. We hang out on the weekends with them sometimes. We're spending Thanksgiving with Roger and Holly (right behind Roger) this year. The two young men in the front are two boys that Roger has practically picked up out of the gutter to feed, clothe, and educate them. Juan and Onasi are from the poorest and most dangerous part of town. I don't know how Roger met them, but for about five years, Roger has been taking care of them on the weekends and helping them with education and their health. Right now, one of them has a gigantic absess in his abdomen - not uncommon for the poor here - which would have gone untreated accept for the fact that Roger took them to the hospital and paid for the treatment. They were happy to be at the game, but they think it's cool to look miserable and bored in pictures. No matter what we did, we couldn't get them to smile for the camera.
Even though Licey was playing the worst team in the league, they got smoked. The die hard fans that were there at the game were not happy at all. We sat right behind the opposing team's dugout, so this picture is of them congratulating a player who just came in with a run. The Toros scored five runs, and Licey scored none. It was a pretty boring game.
In the true Dominican fashion, they push the alcohol like you woulnd't believe. I don't really know about basball in the USA, but
I'm pretty sure they don't sell just about any kind of hard liquor you can imagine at baseball games. There were venders walking around with buckets of rum, selling it to the spectators. It was crazy. I (Claire) had a hot dog. Here we are in front of the stadium. John was wearing his new Licey hat to show his support.
You can't see what this is a picture of because our camera stinks. In fact, almost all the pictures of the game turned out too blurry to keep. We need a new camera. Anyway- this is a picture of the "cheerleaders" who dance on top of the Licey dugout. I think they should be called pole-dancers instead. They shook their booties in every suggestive manner you can think of... no wonder women are so objectified here! It was about ten times worse than any cheerleader dance or even high school poms dance I've ever seen in the USA. We plan to go back to another game - maybe on December 8th when two major rivals play each other, although some people have told us that it gets dangerous at those games. We'll see how it goes. We know we want to exerience a real Dominican baseball game.
// posted by The Roths @ 7:45 AM 
