Photos

Dominicans love Baseball. We play it anywhere, anytime, anyhow. It's not rare to cruise to whichever little town and find out that they might be poor and have no school or hospital, but for sure you'll find some place in which the kids and not-so-kids gather togheter every single day to play "pelota".

A tennis ball or maybe just some old socks stuffed with that day newspaper will serve as the one and only baseball.

The bat might be just about any stick thick enough to hit the baseball far away. You can use your mother's sweep stick or make your own from a Guava or Baitoa tree.

Gloves? We don't need any gloves. Every Dominican kid is born with a pair of gloves that sometimes they also call "hands". But if you really mind about having a glove, please use that Milk tetrapak for it.

Now for the field (the "play" as we call it), it can be any fat or not-so-flat place. Please try to choose a place with the less trees nearby, but if you can't find one, still we can work it making up "rules" regarding how to score plays when the baseball hit the tress. The same goes for holes, water, walls, parked cars, etc. We're not picky at all.

But also pick those branches and that old supermarket plastic bag, as that will be First Base. That old New York Mets cap will be Second Base, and for Third Base we got this magnificent carton piece. Home Plate? Oh yes, I forgot. We draw a circle in the sand for the Home Plate. And we will be very strict when calling plays at the Home Plate. We all know where the circle goes for scoring. The other team doesn't.

Talking about teams... well, you know, there can be any-sized teams. We will have a six-to-six match now.

This is an action shot, taken nearby the Yásica River at Los Brazos, about 40 klms from Moca. The river was just amazing, and this kids where playing in the rocky sands of the river beach. Not to mention the field many disadvantages, as a deep hole close to the black guy in the picture, and many trees just behind him.

The kid in the white t-shirt was acting as pitcher and Secondbaseman at the same time. There is no Catcher so one of the opponent needs to return the baseball every time (if there is a home plate play, Secondbaseman acts as catcher too).

The guy at Second Base is running to Third base as his teammate prepares to hit the ball.

The black guy, whose name is Alexis, is Right and Center fielder. He might be unaware of the play, but half second after my shot he was running back to catch the flyball.

This is the World Series. This is for real. We are for real. If we get to play, of course.