Kovacevic: Pirates in the Caribbean: Mining for diamonds

Part 1 of Dejan Kovacevic’s fine piece.

Here, baseball never sleeps.

Youngsters in coastal La Romana play on a dump site, having shoved the debris to the outfield for a de facto fence. On a narrow slice of cobblestone in the capital Santo Domingo, two 20-year-olds engage in a Brooklyn-style game of stickball, except that the gear is a tree branch and rock. By night, from November to January, 15,000-seat stadiums are jammed with singing, roaring crowds to support the six-team Dominican Winter League, with many native major leaguers delighted to participate on $11,000 salaries as a show of national pride.

“Baseball used to be America’s national pastime,” Gayo says. “Now, it’s the Dominican game. It’s been in the culture from the time the Cubans brought it here in the mid-1800s to now, when it’s the country’s passion. And that’s how it has to be. Baseball is a game you play with your heart.”