Winter baseball in the Caribbean

sports cultures — By Bob Riel on December 3, 2007 at 3:08 pm

Winter is baseball season in the Caribbean and Latin America. According to this report in the Christian Science Monitor, that makes it an excellent time for a trip to that region, where the game is often played for the sheer joy of it.

Baseball season isn’t over; in fact, it’s just begun – in Latin America, that is. There, baseball is a winter sport, and the months of December and January are the perfect time for planning a trip to follow the local action in the Caribbean.

Just as jazz, the original American musical art form, has been exported throughout the world, so has baseball. Within Latin America, baseball leagues are found in the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, and Venezuela…

Baseball in the Dominican Republic is actually a purer form of the sport than fans now see in the US. The professional game is played as it was in the early and mid-20th century, when it was considered America’s national pastime.

Players are accessible at the baseball stadium. “You are closer to the field and the players, compared to a game in the US,” says John Lenihan, an auto industry executive who has traveled from New Jersey to Santo Domingo to watch Dominican League baseball. “You can walk down to the dugout and talk to the players.”