Dominican Baseball

We did it!  Our two week wait was finally over!  We went to heaven! We attended our first Dominican baseball game.  I must admit that this experience far exceeded my expectation for entertainment and excitement. About four miles from our apartment is the beautiful Estadio Quesqueya Jaun Marichal Baseball Stadium, the shared home of the two major baseball teams in Santo Domingo--the Licey Tigueres (Tigers) and the Escogido Liones (Lions).  The stadium is named for the former famous Dominican baseball player Juan Marichal, who pitched  for the San Francisco Giants when I was growing up in the 1960's. Right there, I was in heaven--Juan Marichal's stadium!  Three of our Funval students, Jaime Viscano, Andres Anderson and Miguel Perdomo, who are baseball crazies, said they would like to go to a game and would escort us to our first game providing us with all the inside commentary about Dominican baseball.  There was electricity in the air at game time that I haven't felt in baseball for awhile as the game between the Tigers (blue team) and Lions (red team) is a major rivalry here in the city and in the Dominican league.  Our friends Lynn and Richard Keisker--temple missionaries, our Spanish language tutors and directors of our senior missionary Christmas choir--love baseball and jumped at the chance to join in the fun.

Front L-R Miguel, Andres, Jaime.
Back L-R Richard, Lynn, Peggy, Randy

We bought baseball hats for the Tigers but Andres, who is an avid Lions fan, bought Peggy a red and black Lions cap as a gift. Peggy, being undecided about which team to support, instantly decided to join with Andres and support the Lions.  So all during the game, we all had this back and forth cheering and groaning thing going on every time one team would score or make a good/bad play over the other.  I have never seen such enthusiasm by the fans for baseball.  In the U.S. baseball is pretty mild.  Not here!  There were colored flags flying, a drum ensemble pounding out head-pounding, fast-paced rhythms, and Latin salsa music blasting during and between innings and pitching changes.

To top off the entertainment, the two funniest fat-bellied, dancing mascots--a lion and a tiger (the tiger looked like a chipmunk) The Loin was better and funnier, Peggy) put on a great show of their own.
Wow, when the mascots came out during the seventh inning stretch and had a dance and gymnastics "smack off," it was both entertaining and absolutely hilarious. The mascots made the crowd laugh and got both sides cheering and pumped up.

These guys are our boys! We love them so very much.
We missed Edison, who couldn't come.

The Tigers (Loud!) Drumming Team (top row)

This game reminded me of a BYU-Utah game.  Half the stadium was dressed in red and the other in blue.  Oh...the game. Well the Tigers scored first, then the Lions went ahead and then the Tigers tied it up in the 9th 4 to 4.  In the top of the 11 (yes extra innings!) the Lions scored the tie-breaker run on a very controversial call at home plate.  The umpire called the sliding Lions runner safe on a throw from the outfield.  Wow, talk about the blue team fans going crazy and screaming   "Matar al arbitro!!" or "kill the umpire" in Spanish along with a lot of other phrases that I both couldn't understand and was sure that I really didn't want to learn.  And the red team fans, were out of control jumping up and down, dancing the salsa, Merengue and Bachata all at the same time and screaming that they had just scored what would prove to be the winning run.  Talk about a playoff environment!  The umpire ejected the Tigueres manager after he politely commented on the state of the umpires eye sight which the ejection definitely helped to endear the fans to the ref!! The dejected Tigueres fans (including me) slowly filed out of the stadium (Peggy and Andres were having a giddy victory celebration) when we stopped to watch the instant replay that showed what appeared to be an obvious tag out by the catcher on the runner. (You can tell Randy is writing this, aye?) Not only ouch, but a BIG OUCH!  The umpires had to be escorted off the field by the a host of security guards for their protection.  The game was amazing!   It was so fun for Peggy and me to watch our Funval guys have so much fun being together. I don't think they can attend very many games.  They thanked us many times and you could really feel their appreciation.  Miguel said to Peggy, "I am going to miss you." Peggy gave him a hug and told him we will keep in touch with them. This was another special experience with our new life-long Dominican friends.
Lynn and Richard were thrilled to be there also.  Temple missionaries only have one van that they all have to share, so they are more limited to be able to go places. We really enjoyed having them with us.

 We love all of our new friends.

Randy (with Peggy's comments)