My fiance is a fellow Dominican resident that knows about baseball as much as any Canadian will know about Hockey. He is a baseball trainer at a club snuggled in the outskirts of Santo Domingo. He trains boys from the ages of 6 years to 12 years. Although the children he trains are from higher class families, he knows first hand what baseball means to this country.

He has been a baseball trainer for over 20 years and enjoys what he does so much that rain or shine he will be there. He prepares these children for inner city tournaments and nationwide tournaments. Mind you he puts his heart and soul into his work but the pay he receives for the job that he does is in so many words "pathetic", but luckily he still enjoys it very much. He loves everything about baseball and watches the American Leagues (Las Grandes Ligas) play as much as he possibly can. Dominicans pride themselves in seeing their "pana" (one of their own) playing in the Big Leagues. It is a pity that this man of mine has been training small children to play baseball for so many years and had never been able to afford to go and watch a professional baseball game. We did for the first time when I was down there visiting in February. He was beaming with delight.

When you walk or drive through this city be it morning, afternoon or evening, if there is a baseball game on TV, you better not walk into a "colmado" (small store, somewhat similar to a convenience store, which sells everything from fresh bread to alcoholic beverages) and make a lot of noise, you will be told to get out or to keep your mouth shut. Baseball to them is like soccer to the Europeans. I know this because if I call the fiance when he is watching the game on TV, we talk about it because I am a huge baseball fan, but he tends to let me go so that he can finish watching the game.

It is not surprising that baseball would be the national sport of the Dominican Republic. I have been down there 4 times in the last 11 months. November, February, May and August and to tell you that the heat level in that country is anything but excruciating would be a lie. August was the worst. You walk out of your air conditioned hotel, into the street and in 3 minutes, the sweat is coming down your face. If you can afford a car with air conditioning, you are in "heaven", but if you can't, which is the case of my fiance; we roll down our windows and enjoy the hot breeze that comes in. Any sport that would need you to be running or endure a large amount of physical activity would be very difficult to train and prepare for.

What in the end can be said about baseball and this beautiful country is keep up the good work and let's see more Dominican Professional Baseball players out there. They need your help and consider you a son of their country.

Learn more about this author, Elizabeth Dias.
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