The real highlight of the trip for all of us was the baseball game Saturday night. It was the final night of the Dominican Winter League round robin, and the Licey Tigres were playing the Gigantes de Cibao in Santo Domingo. Obviously, we had to go.
Of course, it's raining again. But it stops just in time for the game!
Jonron!
We couldn't believe the alcohol options available!
Jesse, Chris and Mikal (who joined us for the game) insisted on taking this picture with the energy-drink girls.
We were so happy. Chris declared several times that there was no bar he'd rather be at that night.
Mikal made a new friend (who we decided must have been stood up--check out her game outfit!).
Jesse made a new friend, too. (Only in the DR would people sit right next to you in a near-empty stadium!)
This candy-seller took a moment from his work to explain the game to his son. Later, completely charmed, I bought half of his candy tray.
We scooted up really close after the ticket-checkers retired for the night. I don't know who that is waiting for his at-bat; mysteriously, everyone on the team was named "Samsung"!
As if it weren’t exciting enough just to be at a baseball game in the DR, the game quickly took a wild turn. In the third inning, our team, the Tigres, were down 0-10. It was bleak. Nelson Cruz had hit a grand slam, one of two so far for the Gigantes. Presumably, the catcher was complaining to the home plate umpire about his ball/strike calls, and the ump threw him out of the game. The manager rushed the field to object, and he too was quickly booted from the game. But he didn’t leave. No, he wanted to fight it out. He got in the ump’s face. They were yelling. The ump tried to move away, and the manager got back in his face. All of a sudden, the manager was throwing a punch, and the umpire was falling backwards to the ground! (It’s unclear whether the punch actually made impact.)
The crowd went wild! We were aghast. Chris had never heard of anything like it. We were sure the manager’s career would be over, and sure enough, he’s been banned from the Dominican Winter League for life. (You can read all about it on the Internets!)
I missed the punch, but here’s some of the aftermath:
Seguridad was immediately on guard.
I don't think the umpires quite knew what to do, since this kind of thing happens, well, never.
The Licey fans seemed energized by the encounter and spent the rest of the game badmouthing the umpires, chanting “Umpire raton!” then “Umpire motherfucker!” then “Umpire gay!” then, in Spanish, that he’d gotten what he’d deserved. This was just the icing on the crazy cake. The umpire, Chris tells me, has refused to return to Dominican baseball, understandably scared and offended.
In other news, I couldn’t get over the announcer’s enthusiasm in announcing the names of the Licey batters. Here’s Matt Tupman’s last go, to end the game with a slightly-less-embarrassing loss of 6-10.
To their credit, the Tigres did have the bases loaded at the very end, and a grand slam would have tied things up. Alas, it was not to be. Nevertheless, it’ll surely go down as one of the most memorable games any of us ever attend.
